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MODERN HI 



JL 




A TREATISE ON 



Soils, Plants, and Manures, 



Francis Wyatt, 

M 
PROFESSOR OF AGRICULTURAL CHEMISTRY, CHEMICAL ANALYST, 

ETC. 

AUTHOR OF "THE CHEMISTRY OF SULPHURIC ACID MANUFACTURE, 
"the PHOSPHATES OF THE WORLD,'' ETC., ETC. 




NEW YORK: 

C. E. BARTHOLOMEW, PUBLISHER, 

23 College Place. 

1886. 



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Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1886, by 

C. E. BARTHOLOMEW, 

in the office of the Librarian of Congress, Washington, D. C. 



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F'RKKA CE. 



TO THE AGRICULTURIST OF AMERICA. 



My Dear Sir . 

The pages which. I now pass into your hands are the 
result of much study and hard work, combined with a long special 
experience in matters pertaining to your vocation. They have been 
written solely for your information and advantage, and I trust their 
sincerity and utility will be found to fully justify my familiarity in 
thus personally addressing you. 

For many years past I have had constant intercourse with men of 
your profession, and with the best practical experts in chemical 
manures in every part of Europe, and I judge that the time has come 
to impart to you not only the results of my experience with them, 
but also of my own personal investigations. 

You will, perhaps, tell me that too much has already been written 
and said upon the purely chemical side of this great question ; that 
you have bought and read books and periodicals without number, 
and that you are not very much further advanced to-day than you 
might have been had you kept your money and read no books at all. 

I fancy I can hear you saying, that men of my profession have 
not yet found out the secret of imparting knowledge to men of yours ; 
that where you have too little theory, tJiey have too little practice, 
and that their unfortunate habit of wrapping round their teachings 
a dark mantle of scientific words which you do not understand, has 
hitherto occasioned you more confusion than benefit. 



That because of this there is a lack of good special literature, I 
am far from pretending ; indeed, I doubt not that I could derive 
benefit from much of it, were I to read and digest it. But I 
nevertheless maintain that the books on agriculture, while not above 
your intellect or intelligence, are, as a rule, written in a style beyond 
the plane of j^our scientific education. 

Were I to offer you the best book written in the Latin tongue, 
treating upon a subject familiar to you, the chances are ten to one 
that j'ou would not comprehend a word, and the book would be 
tossed into a corner. Should one of your children — having been 
taught to read and translate the Latin language — stumble upon this 
book, and read it to you in your own mother tongue, you would be 
struck with wonder at the value of its truths and the simplicity of 
its lessons. 

I fancy this is exactly the case between you and our contempo- 
rary scientists, who, persisting in addressing you in unfamiliar 
language, are answerable for 3'our now putting a number of good 
books, that are written for you, " on the shelf." 

My earnest endeavor has been to bear ull these things in mind ; 
thus, while seeking not to deviate one inch from the broad line laid 
down by true agricultural chemistry, I have sought to treat each 
subject in the plainest language possible. 

If I succeed in doing no more than lay the foundation upon 
which you can pile up future knowledge ; if I merely convince you 
of tlie necessity for thought, study and experiment, I shall consider 
that I have aided you in making the first great stride in the right di- 
rection, and shall find in that fact alone a sufficient reward for the 
service I have performed. 

I am, my dear sir. 

Very truly yours, 

FRANCIS WYATT. 

New Yokk Mercantile Exch^\.]sge Building, 

Cor. HrDSON & Harrison Sts. , 

New York City. 



IN DKX. 



CHAPTER I. PAGE 

General Introductory Remarks — Influence of Climate — Origin of Scientific 

Agriculture — Its Progress in America 5 

CHAPTER II. 
Theory of Scientific Agriculture — Formation of the Globe — Its Temperature 

— Composition of the Earth — Its Principal Rocks — Chemistry of 
Vegetation — Necessity for Geological Knowledge — Remarks on Drain- 
age and Irrigation 9 

CHAPTER III. 
Minerals Necessary and Injurious to Plant Life — How Plants Absorb Their 
Food — The Gases and Their Various Transformations — Nitrogen — 
Phenomenon of Nitrification in the Soil — Sources of Nitrogen — Its 
Manufacture — Its Fixation — Its Assimilation — The Necessity for Its 
Application as Manure 13 

CHAPTER IV. 
Phosphates — Discovery of their Active Principle — Use of Bone Manure — 
Discovery of Mineral Phosphates — How They Occur in Nature — Their 
Form in the Soil — How They are Made Soluble — How They are As- 
similated by Plants — Migrations of Phosphorus — The Necessity for 
Artificially Introducing Phosphoric Acid as Manure 18 

CHAPTER V. 
Potash : Its Action on the Soil — Is it Essential to Plant Life ? — Results of 
Direct Experiments — Its Necessity Made Clear — Sources of Its Supply 

— Lime — The Liming of Soils — Its Chemical Action — Its Absorbing 
Powers — Its Action on Sulphurous Ores — Its Action on Iron — Alu- 
mina and Phosphoric Acid in the Soil — Necessity for Its Abundant 

Use 23 

CHAPTER VI. 

How Soils Lose Their Nitrogen — Table of Proportions — Necessity of Soil 

Analysis — Table of Physical Elements and Chemical Constituents 28 

CHAPTER Vn. 
Physically Perfect Soils — Strong and Light Soils — How to Amend Clayey 
Land — Clay Burning — Treatment of Sandy Soils — Green Crops as 
Manure — Remarks on Disintegration — " Fairy Rings :" Their Exist- 
ence Explained — How to Keep Pace with the Times 33 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Progress of the Manure Trade in the United States — Low Price versus Real 
Value — How the Farmer is Swindled — Bogus Manures — Necessity 
for Analysis Demonstrated — How to Stamp Out the Evil — Advice to 
Manufacturers 38 



CHAPTER IX. 
The Different Kinds of Manure — Notes on Vegetable Manures — Animal 
Products — Their Annual Reckless Waste — Estimate of the Loss to 
Agriculture — Hints on Their Preservation and Utilization — Guanos 
Described and Analyzed — Their Variable Quality — Fish Manures — 
Table of Nitrogenous Substances 44 

CHAPTER X. 
Farm-Yard Manures — Composition of Their Liquid and Solid Elements — 
Comparative Value of Absorbents, with Analyses — Composition of 
Various Straws — Superior Value of the Liquid Substance — How to 
Preserve and Utilize it — Treatment of Manure Heaps — How to Com- 
plete Their Value as Fertilizers — Their Decomposition — Formation 
and Description of Humus — Experiments on Freshly-Made and Fer- 
mented Manures — Results of Each Experiment — General Remarks 50 

CHAPTER XI. 

Mineral Manures — Bones, and What They Taught Us — Sulphuric Acid and 
Nitrate of Soda — Bone Ash — Animal Charcoal, or Bone Black — Bone 
Meal — Sulphate of Ammonia : Its Great Power of Decomposing Other 
Manures — How to Detect Impure Nitrate of Soda — Nitrate of Potash, 
or Saltpetre — Phosphate of Lime — River Phosphates — Canadian 
Phosphate — A Ridiculous Extortion 57 

CHAPTER XII. 
Sulphur — Its Occurrence in Nature — The Mines of Sicily — The Refining 
Process — Iceland Soufrieres and Solfataras — Use of Sulphur in Man- 
ufacture — Pyrites and How They Occur — Analytical Tables — General 
Annual Consumption — The Mines of Spain Described 69 



CHAPTER XIIL 
Sulphuric Acid Manufacture — Sketch of Its Past History — Pyrites Burn- 
ing ■:— Glover's Towers — Hints on the Construction of Leaden Chambers 

— Chemistry of the Process — Denitration — Gay-Lussac Towers — 
General Remarks 75 

CHAPTER XIV. 
Superphosphates — Uncertainty of Their Composition — Their Manufacture 
Described — How to Manipulate When Made — Nature of the Decom- 
position Process — Explanation of the Loss in Weight — What is 
Soluble Phosphate ? — Discussion of Its Merits in the Field — Its Ac- 
tion in the Soil — Necessity for Careful Analysis Made Further Manifest 

— Precipitated Phosphates : Their Manufacture, Their Virtues and 
Superiority — LTse of Complete Manures, with Examples and Statistics 

— Remarks on Home-made Chemical Manures 80 



CHAPTER XV. 
Chemical Analysis — How to Read and Understand Chemists' Certificates — 

Use of " Complete " and " Simple " Manures — Conclusion 89 



MODERN HIGH FARMING. 



CHAPTER I. 

6ENEKAL rNTRODTJCTORY REM.VKKS INFLUENCE OF CLIMATE 

ORIGIN OF SCIENTIFIC AGRICULTURE ITS PROGRESS IN 

AMERICA. 

"77 GRICULTXJRE may be truly said to be the foundation stone 

II or roclc upon whicli is built every nation's riches, since the 
qJ productions of nature are the materials of art ; and it is un- 

deniable that the prosperity of the whole human race has always 
been dependent upon three powerful physical agents — Climate, Soil, 
and Food. 

The first thing necessary to the cultivation of a community is 
wealth, as without it there can be no leisure, and without leisure no 
opportunity for the development of the intellectual faculties and the 
acquisition of that knowledge upon which the progress of all civili- 
zation depends. 

As will be shown by a very brief retrospective examination, the 
rapidity with which capital is accumulated in a new country must 
vary in accordance with the nature of its climate and the fertility of 
its soil — the latter regulating the returns made to any given amount 
of labor and care, the former regulating the energy and the conti- 
nuity of that labor. 

The only portions of the American Continent which could lay 
any claim to civilization before the appearance of Europeans, were 



6 MODERN HIGH FARMING. 

those comprised in its very hottest parts — the tract which stretches 
from the Isthmus of Panama to Mexico in the northern, and to Peru 
in the southern tropic. 

If we momentarily set aside — to be dealt with later on — the 
questions of geological and chemical varieties of soil, we may at 
once assume that' the two regulating causes of fertility are combined 
heat and moisture — the f ruitfulness or sterility of the land being 
dependent upon their abundance or deficiency. Now as regards 
moisture, neither in North nor in South America does one great 
river empty itself into the Pacific — the whole of them being upon 
tlie eastern coast ; and as regards heat, nature has been equally 
partial in its endowment of the west. Whether the natural differ- 
ence of temperature resulting from this curious phenomenon forms 
part of some universal scheme, or whether we are dealing with a pe- 
culiar instance, we will not stay to discuss ; the fact and its influence 
upon the early history of this country are indisputable — the two 
great conditions of fertility not having been naturally united in any 
part of the entire continent north of Mexico. The primitive inhab- 
itants were, therefore, in this diflaculty: on one side they wanted 
heat, while on the other they had no irrigation ; and the result was 
that until the sixteenth century, when the acquired knowledge of 
Europeans was brought to bear upon the difiiculty, there existed no 
agriculture, no accumulation of wealth, and no progress north of the 
twentieth parallel, even toward that rough civilization so easily 
attained by the nations of India and Egypt. For a direct contrast 
to what went on in the north, we have now only to turn to the 
narrow tract of land lying south of the twentieth parallel, of which 
the peculiar configuration caused by the contraction of the continent 
until it reaches the Isthmus of Panama — secures to it a large extent 
of coast. 

This southern part of North America thus assumes the character 
of an island — with that feature of an insular climate, t'je increase 
of moisture consequent upon the watery vapor arising from the sea, 
and the augmentation of rainfall natural to its vicinity. It was 
therefore the only portion possessing a natural combination of the 



MODERN" HIGH FARMING. 7 

two essential elements — its equatorial situation giving it heat, and 
the shape of its land humidity; and it was also the only portion 
which arose out of barbarism. 

Without going so far Back into the history of this country for ex- 
amples in favor of our argument, we need only have turned to the 
sandy plains of California, where, until they were quite recently sub 
jected to irrigation by the ingenuity, enterprise and enormous capi- 
tal of a civilized community, nothing met the traveler's mournful 
gaze but the contemplation of a sterile desert; but where are now 
displayed all that marvelous exuberance of soil that has never failed 
to characterize a virgin country when the natural physical elements 
have not been wanting. 

It would be useless in such a work as this to attempt to trace the 
progress of agriculture back to the wandering husbandmen who 
roamed from place to place with their immense flocks until, by the 
eventual adoption of a fixed abode and the expenditure of time and 
labor, a certain price or value was accorded to their land ; and we 
must therefore content ourselves with the broad statement that un- 
til long after the commencement of the present century the agri- 
cultural arts, as practiced by the most advanced of the European 
communities, differed but in trifling details from those exercised by 
the ancient Romans and described in Columella's great work ' -De 
Re Rustica." 

Alarmed by the falling off of crops and general signs of the ex- 
haustion of their soils, the European scientists have been moved to 
bring to bear upon the question the acquired knowledge of the 
geologist, botanist and chemist, and to such men as Liebig, Lawes, 
Gilbert, Dumas, Boussingault, Barral, Malagati, Payen and George 
Ville we are now indebted for a progress which has enabled us to 
become almost independent of natural causes, and for a literature of 
applied and applicable truths second to none in value and importance 
throughout the whole range of scientific investigation. 

That a goodly number of intelligent American agriculturists 
have awakened to all this, and have long been following in the foot- 
steps of their European brethren, is proved by the extension of 



8 MODEEN" HIGH FARMING. 

sulphuric acid and fertilizer manufacture in this country ; but there 
still remains an immense majority of farmers great and small, high 
and low, in north, south, east and west, who have made no study 
of scientific agriculture ; who have not kept pace with the times ;• 
who even look with suspicion and distrust upon those who would 
enlighten them ;' and who are to-day unable to understand why their 
annual crops, though perhaps rotatory, are no longer so abundant, 
nor of so good a quality as they were wont to be thirty or forty 
years ago. Ours being essentially an age of thought and progress, 
the time has come when every man must realize that agriculture can 
only remain a profitable pursuit, on the condition of yearly obtain- 
ing from every acre a maximum and cheap return, and that in order 
to succeed in this he must restore to the soil those elements which 
it once contained, but which in the process of nourishing the plants, 
have been absorbed and taken away. 



CHAPTER II. 

TnEOUY OP SCIENTIFIC AGRICULTURE FORMATION OP THE GLOBE 

ITS TEMPERATURE COMPOSITION OP THE EARTH 

ITS PRINCIPAL ROCKS CIIEJnSTRY OP VEGETATION 

NECESSITY FOR GEOLOGICAL KNOWLEDGE REMARKS ON 

DRAINAGE AND IRRIGATION. 

The theorj' of scientific agriculture is based upon a complete 
knowledge of the nature of soils, plants, animals and manures, and 
it is evident that until these elements are thoroughly understood, 
no attempts at improvement or plans for increased production can 
possibly be successful. It is curiously illustrative of the general 
ignorance that very" few people know anything of the earth they 
tread or the soil they cultivate, in what way it was formed, or what 
is its composition. How, then, can they imagine the mighty in- 
undations and the terrible upheavals ? How conceive anything of 
that gigantic disemboweling of the earth - monster, and of the 
awful torrents of burning lavas which it has vomited forth ? Can 
they realize that our tallest mountains, even those which from their 
)ieight are covered with perpetual snow, were once submerged in 
rolling seas ? or that the rocks and cliffs we meet with in our plains 
are nothing more than agglommerated masses of organisms that 
swarmed the waters ? 

We might very easily allow ourselves to be carried far away by 
this seductive topic, but must needs confine our pen for present 
purposes to a brief synopsis of elementary facts which, if they serve 
no other uurpose, may induce some of our readers to "seek for more." 



10 MODERN" HIGH FARMIN"G. 

Geologists agree in supposing that our globe was once a glowing 
mass of fire, that the formation of the earth's crust is due to the 
gradual process of cooling. They point to its figure and compare it 
to that of a liquid rotatory body acted upon by gravity, and from 
this deduce evidence of its original fluid state. The volcanoes actually 
in a state of eruption prove the earth to have an internal temperature 
independent of the heat of the sun ; and from observations made in 
the deepest mines all over the world, it would appear that this tem- 
perature, below a depth of one hundred feet, increases 1° Fahrenheit 
in every twenty yards; so that, presuming the rate of increase to be 
constant, at twenty thousand yards we should arrive at a low red 
heat, and by descending still lower, this would be sufficiently in- 
creased to maintain all kinds of minerals in a state of fusion. 

The different species of rocks of which the earth is composed, 
may be divided into three groups. 

First— SANDSTONES. — These belong to every geological period, 
are sedimentary and of infinite variety, though differing only in 
the size of the grains of which they are composed and in their 
degree of texture and compactness. When occui'ring in 
connection with clays, marls, chalks, iron-ores, glauconite, or 
felspar, in varying proportions, they undergo transformations 
which convert them into vegetable soils. 

Second— LIMESTONES. — These are organically formed rocks, 
made up of the remains of animal life, corals, shells and 
bones, cemented and so intimately bound together as to neces- 
sitate the minutest investigation for their recognition. 

Third— GRANITE. — These are igneous rocks, of volcanic origin, 
and owe their formation to the cause of interior heat. They 
are composed of numerous distinct orders of crystals such as 
felspar, mica, gneiss, quartz and hornblende, mixed up 
and not in regular beds. 

The history of these three great groups of rocks may therefore be 
aptly termed the history of the earth, since their decomposition un- 
der the combined influence of the atmosphere and water, during a 



MODERN" HIGH FARMING. 11 

long period, ultimately produces highly fertile soils containing sili- 
cates of aluminum, potassium, sodium, magnesium, iron, phosphates, 
sulphates, and chlorides. 

The soil at first resulting from this gradual decomposition forms 
very thin layers, in which only the lower orders of plants find suflS.- 
cient food to fructify — deriving from the air and the rain their 
carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen. In the natural process of 
death and decay, these fresh elements of fertility — in various states 
of combination — are transferred by the plants to the soil, which is 
thus enabled to afEord nourishment to a higher vegetation, and, by at- 
tracting to it the animals in search of vegetable food, receive from 
them other elements conducive to the highest fertility. 

The study of Geology — even if only elementary — will therefore 
enable the agriculturist to accurately guage the natural resources of 
his country, and will teach him how to adapt his ideas upon drain- 
age, irrigation, plowing and sowing to the surrounding circum- 
stances of soil and climate. He will learn to mix and combine differ- 
ent soils, and understand that certain overlying beds on his lands 
may not at all resemble in composition or be derived from the under- 
lying rocks, but may have been carried from immense distances and 
deposited by water. Then it may frequently happen that in some 
fields he may have a very stiff and unworkable clay — which his geo- 
logical map would show to repose upon a deposit of sand or of lime- 
stone, aad in such a case he could at once (after previously verifying 
the fact by some preliminary boring or deeper ploughing) open up a 
quarry and supply his clays with the necessary elements for their 
conversion into loam. 

The acquirement of knowledge will naturally induce us to seek 
by art to assist or even to improve upon nature, and well-considered 
preferences will be accorded to certain cultures and breeds of cat- 
tle, while into the soil will be introduced those elements of fertility 
in which it has been proved to be deficient. 

Sufficient attention will be paid to drainage, the necessity of free- 
ing the land from an excess of water being even greater than the 
introduction of fertilizing elements ; for, although under proper con- 



1:2 MODEKN moil FARMING. 

ditious the latter will uudoubtedly increase the ixuautity ami value 
of the crops, too much AAater ■will effectually preveut us from 
draw iiig any crops at all. Nothing, therefore, can ever be done with 
laud anywhere, if it be not properly drained where there is too much 
moisture, or properly irrigated where the uecessary natural water 
supply is not forthcoming. It is because of the vital importance of 
this question that we are thus emphatic at this early stage . To 
ascertain whence such an excess of water proceeds is not by 
any means a matter of difficulty; a very damp climate, a spongy 
and retentive soil, the existence of underground springs- all these 
or any of them may be the causes of disastrous eHects, which can 
be easily remedied by those possessed of suth knowledge as we have 
endeavored to describe. In the lirst of the cases named, the evil 
may be overcome by ordinary surface drainage, but in the second, 
it is only after ascertaining the true composition of the soil, that we 
can cll'ect such mixtures with other soil, or conibinations with lime 
or sand, as may suggest themselves as necessary, while in the third 
case, the construction of deep luulerdrains alone will carry off the 
water from the sub-strata without allowing it to reach the surface. 
AVherever there exists a faulty or careless system of drainage, 
no correct estimate of the agricultural value of a property can 
possibly be formed, for although from its excessive dampness a soil 
may remain unproductive, it may, nevertheless, contain all the 
necessarv elements of fertility. 



CHAPTER III. 

MINERALS NECESSARY AND INJURIOUS TO PLANT LIFE — — HOW 

PLANTS ABSORB TUEIR FOOD THE OASES AND THEIR 

VARIOUS TRANSFORMATIONS NITROGEN PHENOMENON 

OF NITRIFICATION IN THE SOIL SOURCES OF NITROGEN 

ITS MANUl'WCTURE ITS FIXATION ITS ASSIMILA- 
TION THE NECESSITY FOR ITS ARTIFICIAL APPLICATION 

AS MANXJRE. 

The presence of a considerable number of mineral substances in 
the soil is essential to the healthy growth of plants. But, while 
some of these minerals, such as magnesium, manganese and fluor, 
take no part in furthering, others are positively fatal to their de- 
velopment. Thus one per cent, of sulphate of iron will render a 
soil unproductive, and instances are not wanting where one per 
cent, of chloride of sodium (common salt), in very dry regions, has 
killed all vegetation and produced sterility. 

We may therefore consider that the principal essential substances 
demanded by a healthy and robust plant life, are the following : 

First. — Oxygen, hydrogen, carbon and nitrogen, which veg- 
etables take in and assimilate from the air, through their 
leaves or respiratory organs . 

Second. — Phosphorus, potassium and lime, contained in the 
soil and absorbed by their roots. 

Commencing with the three gases — oxygen, hydrogen and carbon- 
ic acid, we find that they exist in abundance, both in the air and in the 
soil. A combination of the two first in the form of rain, dew, 
springs or irrigation, burnish, with the carbonic acid, the necessary 



14 MODERN^ HIGH FAKMIXG. 

elements to form the carbou-bydrates — glucose, cellulose, dextHne 
and starch, or the hydro-carbons — oils, fats, essences and resins. 

Carbonic acid gas exists in the atmosphere in the proportion of 
four lO.OOOths, and is an union of carbon and oxj-gen formed 
by combustion, respiration, or fermentation. All kinds of fuel con- 
tain largo proportions of carbon, which, combining with the oxygen 
of the air in the burning process, makes its escape in the form of car- 
bonic acid gas. 

In the course of his experiments Boussingault discovered that 
while under the influence of light, the leaves of plants absorb and 
decompose this gas, and that in the dark they evolve or give back a 
certain portion of it. 

Nitrogen is very generally supposed to be assimilated either as 
nitric acid — a combination of nitrogen, hjalrogen and oxygen, 
or as ammonia — a combination of nitrogen and hydrogen only. 
But the question is a most difficult and vexed one, which has 
created a vast amount of speculation and upon which very few of our 
best authorities have yet been able to agree. 

A great many of our readers will have doubtless seen performed 
in their school-days, that interesting experiment first shown by 
Cavendish in 1786, demonstrating the formation of nitric acid from 
the combination of the oxygen and nitrogen of the atmosphere, under 
the influence of the electric spark. The presence of minute portions 
of nitric acid and of nitrates in the rain water, snow, and hail, is easily 
explained on the theory of this important discovery, and any donbts 
which may have existed in some minds as to the reality of the 
combination, were eftectually and finally dissipated when 51. Clo^z 
publicly performed the following experiment in the course of a lec- 
ture deliA-ered to the Chemical Society of Paris, in 1861. A mixture 
of hydrogen and oxygen gases was burnt in the presence of nitrogen, 
and about 210 grammes of water resulted from the explosion, 
which, upon evaporation, was foiTud to contain 3 grammes of salt- 
petre. 

Xumberless chemists have since that time devoted their attention 
to tlie problem of lixing the nitrogen of the air in some utiliza- 



MODEKK HIGH FARMIKG. 15 

ble and assimilable form, aucl many of them lay claim to successes 
which, although theoretically correct ami practically realizable in 
the laboratory, have never yet been able to stand the test of econom- 
ical industrial application. 

This great question will eventually be satisfactorily solved, for 
we have already witnessed the remarkable phenomena of the forma- 
tion of nitrates by the mere passage of atmospheric air through 
such porous bodies as pumice stone and chalk, previously impreg- 
nated with an alkaline solution. It is therefore highly probable that 
the new compound of nitrogen will be ammoniacal, coinmercially 
presented in the form of sulphate, and that the costly product now 
used and manufactured from the refuse liquors of gas works, will 
give place to an article of which the price will be comparatively 
nominal and the supply inexhaustible. 

Until the efforts now being made, however, in all countries, are 
crowned with success, it behoves us to carefully turn to account all 
those sources of nitrogen actually at our disposal. That the com- 
bination of nitrogen and oxygen to form nitric acid actually goes 
on in the air, we have said enough to prove, and that a similar 
operation is possible in the soil we can just as easily show. 

In this case the chemical action ensues under the influence of the 
slow combustion of the carbonized or decaying matters, left behind 
them by the crops, or by the leaves which have fallen from the trees 
and been worked into the ground. 

Now, were it possible for us to allow an exhausted field to 
remain uncultivated for a given number of years, abandoning it to 
that wild and spontaneous vegetation and subsequent death and 
dec&j, which would naturally take place; we should discover that 
the soil had absorbed such a quantity of nitrogen, as to permit of 
our reaping large and repeated crops of cereals without any artificial 
introduction of this essential element. 

But, as this course is diametrically opposed to all the rules 
of rational culture, and would in the majority of cases be impracti- 
cable, we cannot for a moment entertain it as a serious remedy, and 
must seek in other directions that which instead of necessitating the 



16 MODERK HIGH FARMI]SrG. 

Stoppage of any portion of our culture, will enable us to vastly 
increase, if not more tlian double our yearly production . 

Having shown that nitrogen can only enter into combination and 
be fixed in the presence of combustion, no better agent for 
helping this process can well be imagined than farm-yard 
manure, of which in a subsequent chapter we shall have a great 
deal to say. 

Ploughed into the field, this decomposed, rotting, or carbonized 
mass attracts the nitrogen during the whole course of its carboniza- 
tion, and having fixed it, enables it subsequently to undergo the 
various transformations which render it assimilable, and allow of its 
passing from the soil into the plant. 

In what form vegetables assimilate the nitrogen thus fixed, 
it is very difficult to determine ; nor do any of our best authorities 
seem to agree upon the issue. Our own opinion, based upon the 
phenomenon of nitrification and the constant formation of nitrates 
in the soil, is that the nitrogen absorbed into the saj? is brought 
into contact with the oxygen set free by the decomposition of 
carbonic acid, and thus forms nitric acid, which penetrates into all 
the tissues. 

It may be urged against us that plants are organs rather of re- 
duction than of oxidation, and that the nitric acid itself would — 
undergoing a decomposition similar to that of carbonic acid and 
water — be transformed into ammonia by the hydrogen then being 
produced ; but our own researches have been sufficiently elaborate 
to justify us in the meantime in maintaining our ground. 

That nitrogen is assimilable in its free and natural state, we posi- 
tively refuse to admit, and, although it forms four-fifths of the vol- 
ume of atmospheric air, and exists in appreciable quantities in the 
soil, only an insignificant portion would, in the absence of all com- 
bustion, be available for the nourishment of the plants. 

Presuming, therefore, that carbonized materials of any kind are 
not sufficiently abundant to well cover the ground after each crop 
— and this is generally the case — we have to bear in mind that 
we continually take away large quantities of nitrogen, which 



MODEKN HIGH FAKMING. 17 

unaided nature does not with sufficient rapidity replace. It is 
consequently necessary to artificially introduce it into the soil in 
some cheap, efficacious and soluble form, if we desire the equilibrium 
to be undisturbed, since its presence determines the dearth or 
abundance in the plants of nitrogenous carbon-hydrates or proteids, 
such as legumine or vegetable caseine in the leguminous species, 
gluten in the cereals, and nicotine in tobacco. 

As at a later stage of this work we shall come back to this 
question under the heading of Manures, we may for the present leave 
the gaseous elements and pass on to those of a mineral nature, which 
play a no less important part in the vegetable economy. 



CHAPTER IV. 

PHOSPHATES DISCOVEKY OF THEIR ACTIVE PRINCIPI.E USE 

OF BONE MANURE DISCOVERY OF MINERAL PHOSPHATES 

HOW THEY OCCUR IN NATURE THEIR FORM IN THE 

SOIL, HOW THEY ARE M.UDE SOLUBLE HOW THEY ARE 

ASSIMILATED BY PLANTS MIGRATIONS OF PHOSPHORUS 

THE NECESSITY FOR ARTIFICIALLY INTRODUCING PHOS- 
PHORIC ACID AS MANURE. 

Of the absolute necessity for the presence in the soil of such min- 
erals as phosphorus, potassium and lime, we have the most undeni- 
able proofs ; for it has been clearly shown that vegetables, though 
abundantly supplied with oxygen, hydrogen, carbon, and nitrogen, 
remained puny and devoid of vigor if deprived of mineral salts. 

The form in which phosphorus is assimilated is that of phosphate 
— produced, tirst by the action of oxygen as phosphoric acid, and then 
by the combiuation of this acid with various bases, the principal of 
which is lime. Enormous deposits of phosphate of lime have been 
and doubtless will continue to be discovered in every quarter of the 
globe; and as, besides being an essential to plant life, it is the princi- 
pal constituent of bones, we may assume that, if by some extraordi- 
nary jihenomeuon its source were suddenlj' cut o& or exhausted, all 
vegetable and animal life would come to an end. 

So for back as the year 1698 a celebrated French engineer— Yau- 
bau — writing in the Dime Boi/al, says : 

"We have for a long time past been universally complaining of 
the falling olf in the quantity and quality of our crops ; our 
tarms are no longer giving us the i-eturns we were accustomed to ; 



MODEEN" HIGH FAEMIKG. 19 

yet few persons are taking the pains to examine into the causes of 
this diminution, which will become more and more formidable un- 
less proper remedies are discovered and applied. " 

Despite this warning note, it was not until after the co mmence 
ment of the present century that the English farmers began to use 
crushed bones as a manure, and even then they did so in blind ig- 
norance of the principles to which they owed their virtues, as is 
clearly shown by an article published by one of the scientific papers 
of that day — 1830 — in which the writer says : 

"We need take into no account the earthy matters or phosphate 
of lime contained in the bones, because, as it is indestructible and 
insoluble it cannot serve as a manure, even though it is placed in a 
damp soil with a combination of circumstances analytically stronger 
than any of the processes known to organic chemistry." 

A subsequent writer upon the same subject declares that "bones, 
after having undergone a certain process of natural fermentation, 
contain no more than two per cent, of gelatine, and as they derive 
their fertilizing power from this substance only, they may be cou- 
■sidered as having no value as manure." 

That such opinions as these should have prevailed only fifty years 
ago seems to us all the more preposterous, because of the gigantic 
strides which we have made since then, and because of the singular 
fact, that even the Chinese were better informed than our grand- 
fathers, inasmuch as they knew that the fertilizer was a mineral 
principle, and for many centuries have used burnt bones as manures. 

Despite the unflagging researches of the best men of the time, it 
was not until the year 1843, that the Duke of Richmond, after an 
exhaustive series of experiments upon the soil, with both fresh and 
degelatinized bones, came to the conclusion that they owed their 
value, not to gelatine or fatty matters, but to tlieir large percentage oj 
phosplioric acid ! The spark thus emitted soon spread into a flame, 
and a conclusive experiment shortly after published by the illus- 
trious Boussingault, set all uncertainty at rest forever. 

Numerous species of vegetables were planted in a soil rich in as 
similable nitrosen, and absolutely devoid of any trace of phosphoric 



20 MODEEN HIGH FARMIISTG. 

acid. No development of these plants took place, until he had made the 
addition of phosphate of lime, when their growth iecame flourishing ! ! ! 

Meanwhile large workable deposits of mineral phosphates were 
already known to exist, they having been simultaneously discovered 
in their respective countries, by Buckland in England, and Berthier 
in France ; and ih the course of a lecture delivered to the British As- 
sociation in 1845, Professor Henslow, describing the Suffolk copro- 
lites, suggested the immense value of their application to agriculture. 

From this time may be dated the commencement of phosphate 
mining, and it is certainly marvelous to contemplate, not only the 
rapidity with which fresh deposits have been everywhere discovered 
and opened up ; not only the millions of tons yearly raised to sup- 
ply a never-failing demand, but also the fabulous amount of capital 
and gigantic numbers of workmen constantly and remuneratively 
employed in the production. 

Phosphates of lime have been found in rocks of all ages, and of 
nearly every texture ; sometimes pure ; sometimes in different 
forms of chemical combination ; in mineral fissure veins ; in pock- 
ets, or filled-up cavities ; in stratified beds or layers, and in intimate 
connection with the fossil remains and other phosphatic matter, de- 
posited by the ancient seas. They are, however, chiefly found as: 

APATITES, or Crystalline Phosphates, occurring in the gneissic 
rocks of the Laurentian age in North America and Norway, 
and in the Silurian rocks of Spain and Portugal. 

COPROLITES, or Fossilized Nodules, occurring in the green sand- 
stone, or cretaceous rocks of England, France, Belgium and 
Russia. 

PHOSPHORITES or Amorphous Rock Phosphates, occurring in 
the Tertiary stratas— principally in France, Germany, and 
America (South Carolina). 

Their commercial value is entirely based upon their strength in tri- 
calcic phosphate, which ranges in some regions and for some mar- 
kets, from 30 per cent, up to 85 per cent. 

All those who are familiar with soil analysis will agree that, in 
the majority of cases, the phosphates therein are found to exist as 



MODERN" HIGH FAEMING. 21 

phosphates of sesquioxide of iron, or alumina — insoluble in carbonic 
acid, but readily decomposed by the alkaline carbonates. We can 
therefore admit that, under the influence of a well-limed soil, or 
when acted upon by the carbonates resulting from the decomposi- 
tion of the felspar rocks, these insoluble phosphates should yield 
their phosphoric acid, to be taken up in solution by water ; either 
pure or charged with carbonic acid, and that in this form they should 
be absorbed with the water by the vegetable roots. 

In the springtime, phosphates are found in noteworthy quantities 
in young organs of plants, especially in the leaves, but the quantity 
gradually diminishes as the plant approaches maturity, until when 
the blossoms appear, the phosphates are found to have entirely quit- 
ted the leaves and accumulated in the seeds. This is the cause of 
that peculiar effect, which has long puzzled farmers, that fodder cut 
and brought in after the period of maturity, proves to be much less 
nourishing to the cattle than that cut before this period has arrived. 

It is worthy of note that in every instance, this displacement of the 
phosphates is accompanied by an equal disx)lacement of the nitrogen, 
and all those who have made successive analyses of grains in different 
stages of maturity, must have been struck by the regular parallel man- 
ner in which the quantities of both have progressively augmented. 

Mr. Corenwinder, in his work upon the migrations of phosphorus 
in vegetables, alluding to this phenomenon remarks : 

"It has long been known that young buds are rich in nitrogenous . 
matters, which are always accompanied by a relatively considerable 
portion of phosphorus, and there is no doubt that these two elements 
are united in the vegetable kingdom according to some mode ot' 
combination which is yet a mystery. " 

And Mr. Boussingault, writing upon the same subject, says: 

"We perceive a certain constant relation between the proportions 
of nitrogen and phosphoric acid contained in foods, those being rich- 
est in the latter element which contain most nitrogen. This would 
appear to indicate that in the vegetable organization phosphates 
particularly belong to the nitrogenous principles, and that they fol 
low the latter into the organization of animals," 



22 MODEKK HIGH FAKMI^STG. 

Now we have seeu that nitrogen can, though in a very small 
degree, be really imparted to plants and to the soil from the atmos- 
phere ; and that after having assisted, through the plant, in forming 
the muscular tissues of the various animals, it is apt to reassume its 
aerial character and become at liberty to form fresh combinations 
either as ammonia or nitric acid. The actual loss, therefore, of this 
element is comparatively small ; but with the phosphorus the case is 
a very different one, since it always maintains certain fixed combi- 
nations, and is taken away from and irrecoverably lost to the soil in 
immense quantities with every crop. 

Hence the same question arises here which, as we have seen, 
arose in the case of the nitrogen, and none are more important or 
more worthy of profound consideration : 

"How SHALL WE KESTOKE TO THE GROUND THOSE ELEMENTS 
WHICH WE YEARLY TAKE AWAY FROM IT ?" 

It will be our duty, later on, to j)oint out the solution which 
science has furnished to this problem, and how the remedies it pre- 
scribes are to be employed with economy and profit. 



CHAPTER V. 

POTASH : ITS ACTION ON THE SOIL IS IT ESSENTIAL TO PLANT 

LIFE ? RESULTS OF DIRECT EXPERIMENTS ITS NECES- 
SITY MADE CLEAR SOURCES OF ITS SUPPLY LIME 

THE LIMING OP SOILS ITS CHEMICAL ACTION ITS AB- 
SORBING POWERS ITS ACTION ON SULPHUROUS ORES 

ITS ACTION ON IRON ALUMINA AND PHOSPHORIC ACID IN 

THE SOIL NECESSITY FOR ITS ABUNDANT USE. 

The ashes of all plants, when submitted to analysis, are found, to 
contain potash in noticeable proportion, and hence that substance is 
presumed to be a very active and essential fertilizing agent, although 
its precise influence in the process of development is not rig- 
orously known. 

It has been suggested that, once in the soil, it enters into a solu- 
ble combination with the phosphoric acid to form potassic phos- 
phate, and in that shape becomes absorbed by the roots of the 
plants, the basic salt, however, remaining deposited in the various 
organisms after the evaporation of the water. 

The doubts which have been expressed by many authorities as to 
the utility of introducing potash into the soil as an active artificial 
manure, induced Monsieur George Ville, when experimenting at 
Vincennes, to devote his particular attention to this disputed point, 
and although it cannot be said that his researches have added very 
much to our information from a chemical point of view, the results 
he obtained were of a sufliciently definite nature to warrant us in be 
lieving that the growth of plants would be unhealthy, if completely 
deprived of potash. 



24 MODERN HIGH FARMI^STG. 

On the one half of a completely exhausted field, plentifully man- 
ured with nitrogenous and pliosphatic fertilizers, he caused to be 
sown a sufficiency of the finest quality grain. This sowing produced 
a crop of extreme poverty. 

On the other half of the same field to which the same manure 
had been applied, but with the addition of potash, he sowed exactly 
the same quantity and quality of grain, and produced a crop of mag- 
nificent appearance and extreme abundance. 

Exactly similar results have attended many experiments of our 
ovi^n upon plants of the leguminous species, and it therefore seems 
evident that due weight must be attached to the opinion of those 
who affirm that putting back potash into the soil, is quite as necessary 
in some cases as the addition in others of phosphate of lime. 

We must not overlook that we have not yet penetrated into all 
the mysteries of plant life and plant feeding ; that many things daily 
occur which overthrow or considerably shake the conclusions we had 
already formed and the theories we had built upon them ; also that 
results obtained in some regions and by some agencies are often dia- 
metrically opposed in other places, although the surroundings appear 
to be the same. 

We should, therefore, carefully guard ourselves against the adop- 
tion of those extreme views which have prompted some excellent 
chemists to teach us that potash has no merits as a manure, and 
which have induced others to assert that no perfect crops can be pro- 
duced without its active intervention. 

Joining our own experiences to those of many important agricul- 
turists in France and England, with whom we have corresponded 
on the subject, we are content to endorse the opinions of George 
Ville ; and to look upon the use of potassic salts as highly beneficial, 
if not indispensable. 

The principal commercial sources of our potash are the mines of 
Stassfilrt, Germany, where in the various forms of sylvine, kainit, 
and carnallite, it was discovered in 1858 in proximity to the beds of 
chloride of sodium (common salt). We generally meet with it as a 



MODERlSr HIGH FARMING. 25 

tolerably pure muriate or chloride, aud in this form recommend its 
addition to manures, or direct introduction into the soil. 

If the utility and action of potash are sometimes contested, the 
same cannot be said of lime, than which few elements in agriculture 
play a more iniportant part, or one that is better understood. 

The liming of soils has been a common practice in all countries 
from the veiy earliest times ; but it was presumably not until the 
seventeenth century that the use of burnt lime — now universally 
recommended — was introduced. It is employed in quantities vary- 
ing with the composition and the requirements of a soil, from twenty 
tons per acre into those which are heavy, compact, and laden with 
moisture, to five tons per acre into those which are light and of a 
dryer nature. 

That its scope of usefulness cannot be by any means guaged by 
the relatively small proportion found by analysis to exist in the 
plants, we must all agree, and we have often asked ourselves whether 
in point of fact, the presence of this element in plant organisms is 
directly connected with their nourishment and growth, or whether it 
is to be explained by the mere evaporation of the water by which it 
was conducted into the tissues and there deposited ? 

However this may be, the quantity absorbed from is out of all 
proportion to the quantity introduced into the soil, as will be seen 
from the following figures. 

Quantity of Lime absorbed jjer acre by the u7idermentioned 
Cultivated Plants : 



Potatoes, 
7 lbs. 



Wheat, 
20 lbs. 



Beetroots, 

18 lbs. 



Clover, 
70 lbs. 



And it is therefore not in this direction that we have to seek for its 
principal chemical action. 

In certain regions pyrites, or sulphurous ores, are disseminated 
throughout the soils and underlying strata, sometimes in large but 
generally in minute quantities. The action of heat upon these sul- 
phur-bearing substauces generates sulphurous vapors, and these on 
meeting the elements undergoing the process of nitrification — already 



26 MODERN HIGH FAEMIKG. 

ready described — would form sulphuric acid, which, combining with 
the oxides in the soil to form sulphate of iron, would immediately 
render cultivation or vegetable growth impossible. 

The counteracting or preventive part here j)layed by lime is at 
once manifest, since by its ready absorption of the acid it would in- 
terfere with any. other combination and become, itself, more soluble 
and efficacious by its transformation into gypsum. 

Apart from such special cases as these, the virtues of lime must be 
attributed to its caustic action upon all organic remains. 

Being rich iu unavailable because insoluble forms of nitrogen, these 
are rapidly decomposed, and by coming in contact with other agents 
are submitted to the nitrification process and rendered assimilable) 
and this has given rise to the assertion that to spread lime upon a 
newly plowed cultivated field is equal to the application of a good 
dose of soluble nitrogenous fertilizer. 

As we shall jjresently show, its intimate admixture in a finely 
powdered state with all kinds of clayey soils is invaluable^ diminish- 
ing as it does their plasticity and augmenting their permeability to 
the action of air and water. 

We have explained that phosphoric acid invariably exists in the 
soil in combination with peroxide of iron or alumina ; these two 
agents must therefore exercise an immediate transforming action 
upon the phosphate of lime which is introduced in both natural and 
artificial manures. 

This transformation can be demonstrated by adding either per- 
oxide of iron or alumina, or both, to a solution of phosphates iu 
water charged with carbonic acid gas (ordinary seltzer water at 
high pressure), when in a very short time all the phosphoric acid 
will have disappeared from the solution, and be found iu the deposit 
as phosphate of peroxide of iron. 

Now, if one gramme of this ferric phosphate be put into water 
with two or three grammes of carbonate of lime, and be allowed, 
with frequent shakings, to stand for forty eight hours — the mixture 
at the end of that time being poured into an excess of seltzer water — 



MODEEX HIGH FAEMIN'G. 27 

the solution will be found upon analysis to contain about six milli- 
grammes of phosphoinc acid. 

The results of these experiments are too clear to permit of our 
doubting that the lime put into the soil becomes carbonate by its 
absorption of the carbonic acid gas, and that in tliis form it is 
chiefly instrumental in decomposing the phosphates of iron and 
alumina. 

It is therefore necessary to furnish the soil with a considerable 
excess of lime, since if the free peroxides maintain -the ascendant, 
no effect will follow the application of the phosphates, from the 
simple fact that their dissolution cannot take place. 



CHAPTER VI. 

now SOILS LOSE THEIR NITEOGEN TABLE OF PROPORTIONS 

NECESSITY OF SOIL ANALYSIS TABLE OP PHYSICAL 

ELEMENTS AND CHEMICAL CONSTITUENTS. 

We Lave now reviewed the nature of the principal elements 
essential to vegetation, and have described the parts they severally 
play and the places they probably occupy in the organisms of plants. 
While admitting that, in some insignificant instances, we are still 
unable to completely unravel the mysteries connected with vegeta- 
ble inner organisms, we may claim to be no worse off in this respect 
than the science of Pathology, to whose professors many secrets re- 
lating to the blood have still to be revealed. We have nevertheless 
been able to place on record a series of facts which support our theo- 
ries and confirm our deductions ; and facts, as we are all aware, are 
"very stubborn things." 

Thus, with man, it is not enough to give him food : his diet must 
contain a mixture of substances, the absorption of which is the con- 
dition of his existence, and whose composition is found to be iden- 
tical with the materials constituting his bodily frame and tissues. 

In plants the same phenomenon presents itself : deprived of cer- 
tain elements they pine, droop, and die ; supplied with them they 
flourish and are vigorous ; and, upon analyzing their organism, we 
prove them to contain an abundance of the very elements without 
which they were unable to exist. 

It will be interesting here to examine some figures showing 
us in what proportion the soil is regularly deprived by the different 
crops of its nitrogen, phosphoric acid, and potash. 



MObERK HIGH PARMilsrG. 



^9 



Table showing the approximate quantity by weight in POUNDS of nitro- 
gen, phosphoric acid, and potash, taken from the soil by 
every ten TONS of the following crops : 
Grains and Seeds. 



Eye 


. .. 420 




...311 


138 


Barley 


,.. 385 




...180 


122 


Oats 


... 490 




...133 


91>^ 


Corn 


... 405 




...135 


81^ 


Colza 


,.. 785 




...415 


220 


Linseed 


... 810 




...320 


257 


Hemp 


... 6C0 




...437 


242 


Poppy 


. .. 650 




...420 


184 


Peas 


... 850 




...221 


260 


Vetches 


.. 1010 




...203 


160 


Horse Beans 


... 990 




...297 


310 


Lentils 


.. 900 




...135 


205 


Lnpine 


...1380 




...221 


293 






Fodders. 




Meadow Hay 


... 335 




...90 


410 


White Clover 


... 605 




...220 


265 


Eed " 


... 532 




...145 


495 


Luzerne 


... 580 




...132 


383 


Vetche Hay 


. . 595 




245 


780 


Straws and 


Stalks. 




Wheat Straw 


... 86 




...02 


127 


Eye " 


. . . G-3 




...40 


197 


Barley " 


... 132 




...46 


........ 240 


Oats " 


... 94 




...52 


197 


Com " 


... 133 




...98 


410 


Pea " 


. .. 205 
. .. 410 
T9U 




98 .... 


271 


Horse Beans 


...120 


655 


Colza " 




. . 65 


250 


Linseed Stalks.. 


. .. 192 




...lie 


300 


Hemp 


. .. 207 




. . . 135 


140 




Flowers and 


Leaves. 




Hop's Cones 


...22.33 
...1203 




"37 


568 


Tobacco Leaves.. 




...247 


1308 






Roots 






Beets 


.. 40 

. .. 84 




. . . 31 


98 


Potatoes 




...40 


142J^ 


Turnips 


, .. 52 
.. 55 




...35 


83 


Carrots 


... 33 


84 



30 ■ MODERN" HIGH FARMING. 

No better arguments can possibly be adduced in favor of soil re- 
constitution, than the figures here given ; for they seem to us to be 
a direct appeal from the plants themselves, for the administration of 
that food without which they must gradually starve and finally dis- 
appear. 

"We have, therefore, to study with increased earnestness that 
problem which has already been so long occupying the minds of 
agricultural scientists; the question of "how we are to arrest the 
marked falling off in the quantity and quality of our crops, by the 
impoverishment and gradual exhaustion of our soils ; and how, 
where, and when we are to apply those elements of fresh vigor and 
life, which the discoveries of chemistry have placed at our command. 
When a man who has hitherto never been sick, finds that his health 
is beginning to fail, he, if possessed of common sense, calls in his 
doctor, who after careful diagnosis discovers the root of the evil and 
prescribes a remedy. Is it not evident that if he would know what 
to do for his soils to make them productive or amenable to culture, 
or to restore them to their past state of fertility, the farmer should 
first of all be made acquainted with their composition — their physi- 
cal and chemical properties? 

We have ever advocated the theory exposed at the commence- 
ment of tills work, that no successful results can attend any attempts 
at scientific culture, if such attempts are made in ignorance of the 
elements we seek to improve ; and for this reason we maintain 
that the only certain guide to successful cultivation, is the complete 
chemical analysis of the soil, joined to a thorough knoioledge of the eli- 
matological and other surrounding conditions. With these at his com- 
mand, the experienced chemist can throw the broad light of day on 
all the points which have been hitherto obscure, and can suggest 
methods of practical treatment, at once productive of a radical 
amelioration. 

It has been and still is urged in some quarters, that no informa- 
tion procured in the laboratory, can be so perfect as that acquired by 
constant observation on the ground, and by continuous practical 
manipulation of the soil ! 



MODEKN" HIGH EARMIN"G. 31 

We reply to this that, while quite prepared to accede in the very 
fullest manner to all the claims of long practice, and while admitting 
that some crops may be annually produced, it has frequently 
occurred in our experience that the addition of some essential ele- 
ment to the soil, discovered by chemical investigation to exist there in 
InsufEicient quantity, has been the means of immediately doubling the 
quantity previously produced of those very crops and greatly height- 
ening their quality. 

Thus, for example, it is very desirable to know how much lime a 
soil contains, since the different combinations which it facili- 
tates or into which it enters, produce sweet, sound and nutritious 
green crops, full eared grain, and fine strong straws. If a soil con- 
tain too little or no lime, none of these advantages can accrue, and 
yet the farmer may have expended considerable sums in the purchase 
of other fertilizers, and will not comprehend their inefSciency until 
his attention is directly called to the absence of lime. 

Again, it is necessary to know the proportion of combustible or 
organic matter contained in a soil, since upon their abundant pres- 
ence depends the fixation of a greater or lesser quantity of nitrogen. 

And yet again, there may be present some of those injurious com- 
pounds of iron or salt already described, or an excess of clay or of 
sand, or too much water, etc. 

The whole of these cases, a-though of great importance, are mere- 
ly elementary; for we must remember that in addition to them 
we require to know how much ammonia, nitric acid, phosphoric acid, 
potash, and many other elements a soil contains before we can form 
any just appreciation of its value. 

Before proceeding to investigate the chemical constituents of a 
soil, it is, as we have seen, necessary to rigorously examine its 
physical properties, they being the real basis upon which everything 
subsequently depends. 

No man ia his right senses would attempt to build a house on 
moving sands, and just in the same way it would be futile to seek 
to introduce chemical elements into a soil, if it were found to be 
physically incompatible with vegetation and high-class culture. 



33 



MODERN" HIGH FARMING. 



To ascertain the true plij^sical and chemical condition of a soil, 
the following complete investigation must be undertaken : 

Determination of its density or weight as compared with the 

weight of water. 
Determination of its proportions of sand. 
" " clay. 

" " " gravel. 

•' " powers of absorbing water. 

" " " holding water. 

" " drying capacity. 

" " powers of absorbing solar heat. 

These operations having been satisfactorily performed, and the 
physical properties thus accurately known, the study of its value 
for plant alimentation may be proceeded with in the following order : 

Quantitative determination of its percentage of sulphuric acid . 

" " nitric acid. 

" " phosphoric acid. 

" " nitrogen. 

" " lime. 

" " chlorine. 

" " carbonic acid. 

" " potash. 

" " soda. 

" " peroxide of iron. 

" " alumina. 

" " oxide of manganese 

" " magnesia. 

" " soluble silicates. 

Aniifid with the results of this exhaustive investigation, we can 
At once find out how the soil may with rapiditj^ and economy be 
brought to attain the highest degree of fertility. 



CHAPTER VII. 

PHYSICALLY PERFECT SOILS STRONG AND LIGHT SOILS HO^V 

TO AMEND CLAYEY LAND CLAY BURNING TREATMENT 

OF SANDY SOILS GREEN CROPS AS MANURE REMARKS 

ON DISINTEGRATION " FAIRY RINGS " THEIR EXIS- 
TENCE EXPLAINED HOW TO KEEP PACE WITH THE TIMES. 

The most favorable physical conditions of a fertile soil are found 
to exist in a nearly equal mixture of sand and clay. When it con- 
tains less than thirty per cent., or about one-third of sand, it should 
cease to be classed among those fit for agricultural purposes, and, 
according to its composition, be turned to account in other directions. 
The two substances — clay and sand — are destined by nature to play 
respective parts, which may be thus described : the clay to store up 
and hold together those substances essential for plant food ; the sand 
to serve as a ventilator or conductor of air and water. 

As the defects of physically well-constituted lands may be easily 
discovered and dealt with by chemical analysis, our present pur- 
pose will be served if we devote our attention to tliose of a less 
happy nature, which, for convenience, we shall distinguish as strong 
or clayey, and light or sandy soils ; the former being heavy, tena- 
cious, plastic, and retentive of moisture ; the latter porous and 
incapable of holding water. It not uufrequently happens that in 
some regions both these qualities are alternately met with in consid- 
erable abundance, extending over very large areas ; and in such 
cases a judicious mixture is the natural remedy which suggests it- 
self. In other regions we meet with vast tracts of land wholly 



34 MODEEN HIGH FARMING. 

composed of clay or entirely sandy, and here it is that our ingenuity 
must be brought to bear. 

Commencing on a clayey soil with the removal of all excess of 
water, by a system of surface or substrata drainage, we must look 
around us for those substances which, by their addition, will com- 
municate to the clay the necessary degree of porosity. 

In a previous chapter we have explained that many surface soils 
have no natural connection with the rocks which underlie them ; 
that they may have been carried to their present position, and de- 
posited by water arriving from various distances, and that conse- 
quently they may cover strata of an entirely different composition 
to their own. An examination of this point, being very easily made, 
should never be neglected, because, if beneath the overlying clays 
we come upon beds of marls, limestones, or sand, we need seek no 
further for what is necessary to remedy the defects under consider- 
ation. Presuming, however, the non-existence of any underground 
source of improvement, recourse must be had to outside means : 
the application of cinders, furnace refuse, coal dust, or ashes, the 
ashes of all kinds of burnt vegetable refuse; old and discarded 
building materials, large quantities of lime, chalk, or marls ; the 
whole of which will have the desired effect. 

In some rare cases we have heard it objected that none of the 
bodies we have enumerated could be obtained in sufficient quantities, 
near enough at hand to admit of their employment ; and that their 
transport from long distances is rendered impossible by the heavy 
and prohibitive charges for freight. Although such objections must 
soon disappear before the rapid growth of cheaper communications, 
we cannot afford to overlook them, but, bearing in mind that "labor 
omnia vincit" must seek and find in the clay itself a solution to the 
difficulty. 

First roughly shaped into balls or bricks and allowed to dry 
in the sun, it should be burnt in small piles made up of alternate 
layers of clay, wood, coal dust, or any other cheap and readily avail- 
able combustible material. When the burning process, which gen- 
erally lasts some days, is terminated, the bricks or balls must be 



MODERN HIGH FARMIKG. 35 

broken up as finely as possible, and, together with the ashes of the 
combustibles, plowed in a wholesale manner — deeply and thorough- 
ly—into the field. 

Our object in burning the clay is to make it undergo a radical 
chemical transformation, in the course of which it loses its water of 
combination and its power of absorbing and retaining moisture. 

If, on the one hand, an excess of clay renders our agricultural 
operations so arduous, we find on the other that an excess of sand in 
the soil, and a consequent lack of clay, makes them impossible. 

The most effectual method, therefore, of dealing with a sandy 
soil is to add to it a suflicient quantity of clay to hold together the 
fertilizing and nourishing agents, whether naturally present or arti- 
ficially introduced ; for unless this is done, all the manurial elements 
(having nothing to retain them) will be washed from the soil by the 
rains and completely lost. 

Where clays are not readily forthcoming, the use of marls and 
lime must be resorted to with an unsparing hand ; the latter accom- 
panied with as much as possible of the green refuse — leaves, stalks, 
etc., etc,, from the various crops. 

It may even in special cases, and for a certain period, be advisa- 
ble to use up all the lower orders of green crops entirely as manures 
for this kind of soil, in preference to keeping or selling them for 
food ; more advantage being likely to accrue from the beneficial ac- 
tion exercised by their decomposition than is represented by any mo- 
mentary profit arising from their sale or consumption. 

These vegetable substances should be very evenly distributed over 
the surface of the fields and plowed in simultaneously with the lime. 
Their beneficial effects arise not only from their power of retention, 
but also from their attracting and fixing the nitrogen in the air and 
the soil by the processes already described. 

In considering all that has been written in the preceding pages 
upon the combinations and transformations that go on in the soils — 
their physical and chemical defects, and the means by which we are 
to remedy them ; and in examining that important question of ma- 
nures which we are now about to open, there is one essential element 



36 MODEEN HIGH FARMING. 

in the conditions of success la higli farming wliicli we shall do well 
never to lose sight of. We refer to the necessity of maintaining the 
land in a fine workable condition by continually and thoroughly dis- 
integrating, aerating, pulverizing and turning it over. 

We have lengthily dwelt upon the oxidation and combustion of 
t he organic matters, and the beneficial action of lime and other ele- 
ments connected with their decomposition. We have shown how 
clayey soils may be made porous, and suggested means of rendering 
more tenacious and retentive those composed of sand. But in all 
these cases, unless the necessary means are adapted for breaking up 
the atoms and so finely dividing them as to make them accessible to 
the action of air and water — in other words, pulverizing the soil — 
what we have written would be deprived of more than half its value. 

Now it stands to reason that certain portions of a good soil, and 
those most valuable because of their tenacity, will by the action of 
the rainfall become clodded; while others — the sandy and least 
retentive portions only — will remain in a state of separation or 
division. If, under such conditions as these, we introduce into 
the soil a. costly manure containing either nitrates or ammoniacal 
salts, we shall find that those lumpy, hard and clodded portions, 
whose express mission it is to keep together and hold these elements 
in store at the disposal of the tender young rootlets, will not even 
receive them, and that with the very first application of water 
they will be washed away. 

We have all seen — we see every day if we keep our eyes open — 
not only in our own fields, but in the fields of our neighbors, cer- 
tain small delightful patches of a luxuriant vegetation, scattered 
here and there without any regard to order or regularity. The 
stalks are higher and stronger ; the ears fuller ; the grains larger and 
more plentiful ; and the whole aspect of these " fairy rings" offer 
such a marked contrast to the other portion of the surrounding crop, 
as to irresistibly chain our attention and excite our wonder. 

But no great genius is needed to discern the cause of this mar- 
velous effect, which is simply a practical demonstration of two 
important facts : 



MODEKN HIGH FARMING. 37 

FiKST. — The undoubted efficacy of artificial manures, when well 
selected aud judiciously applied. 

Second. — That a badly worked soil, in a lumpy aud imperfect state 
of division, is incapable of affording to the plants that amount 
of nourishment essential to perfect development. 

"Whenever we find it practicable, we recommend deep plowing; 
and, while filled with a becoming reverence for the memory of our 
grandfathers, we must deprecate the custom of too closely treading 
in their footprints. They were fain to rest content with the natural 
but only partial disintegration ensuing from exposure of the up- 
turned clods to the atmospheric air ; but we, let us remember, live 
in an age of progress and of rapid communication ; and in agricul- 
ture, as in all other things, "the race is to the fittest.'' 

If we would outrun — or even keep pace with — our competi- 
tors, we must watch and take lessons from the signs of the times, 
which teach us that we must increase our production and decrease 
our cost. In other words, we must make the lands produce their 
very best and largest crops, and in doing so must not only utilize 
our capital and our labor, but must freely exercise our brains as 
well. 

The general practice now prevailing in Europe, of not only 
well pulverizing the soil after it has been plowed over and allowed 
to dry, but of repeating the operation at the time of adding to it the 
manure, and thus blending and mixing the whole, has been produc- 
tive of the best results. 

By following this course we shall attain a highly conditioned and 
sensitive soil, deriving in due season all the benefits of the rains, 
frosts, thaws, and solar heat; our manurial agents will be equally 
disseminate'd over an equally divided soil ; and we shall thus not 
only render them doubly efficacious, but shall effect a large economy 
in the quantity necessary to be used. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

PROGRESS OF THE MANURE TRADE IN THE UNITED STATES LOW 

PRICE versus real value how the farmer is SWINDLED 

BOGUS MANURES NECESSITY FOR ANALYSIS DEMON- 
STRATED HOW TO STAMP OUT THE EVIL ADVICE TO 

MANUFACTURERS. 

To the questions : How are we to prevent the soils from becom- 
ing exhausted ? — What must we do to increase rather than allow to 
diminish our yearly production ? we have already foreshadowed 
our reply. Let us liberally return to the lands the equivalent of that 
which we have borrowed, and remember that our endeavors to get 
something out of nothing, will be like trying to squeeze a quart of 
liquid into a pint pot — sheer waste of time and ingenuity. 

We have only to look about us to find out that the truth of our 
doctrine is already admitted ; that it is rapidly gaining ground ; 
that throughout the length and breadth of this vast country, earnest 
men are striving by experiment and example to root out existing 
prejudices. These missionaries are succeeding in their work, surely 
if slowly. We have the evidence of their success in the steady 
growth of the principal industries connected with the manufacture 
of fertilizers, of which the present annual production exceeds 
500,000 tons ! 

What we have now chiefly to examine, therefore, is not so much 
the necessity of using manures — since that is admitted — as what 
kind of manures we are to use. 

When a sensible man purchases a pair of boots, he tells his shoe- 
maker he wants an article that will wear well, and that he is ready 



MODERN HIGH FARMIN"G. 39 

to pay a fair price for it. Sound quality is liis first consideration. 
Wliy sliould not tlie very same idea predominate wlien we are buying 
a manure, and what is tlie invariable consequence of a contrary 
policy ? In nine cases out of ten the ' ' fertilizer " is but an abomin- 
able satire upon the name, and, having no other recommendation 
than its cheapness, produces no fertility. Its purchase is conse- 
quently the cause of a double loss : first, the money paid for its 
purchase, and second, the increase which would have accrued from 
the use of a good manure. 

As a means of illustrating our meaning, we may here quote a 
case selected from hundreds which have come under our notice. 

About three years ago, we were requested by a farmer in the 
south of France, to explain how we reconciled our theories with the 
facts resulting from his practical experience ? He had made liberal 
and costly application of manures to his soils, and no increase or 
amelioration had taken place in his crops ! Interrogated as to what 
manure Le had been using, and what was the nature of his soil, he 
was totally unable to give any satisfactory reply ; but informed us 
that he had purchased the material, prescribed and recommended by 
an agent who had called upon him, and that in doing so he had fol- 
lowed the example of many of his neighbors. 

Upon examination of his soil, we found it to be of the poorest 
sandy character, composed as follows : 

Moisture 1.80 

Organic Matter 4.93 

Oxides of Iron and Alumina 6.73 

Phosphoric Acid traces. 

Carbonate of Lime 3.01 

Potash 0.23 

Magnesia 1.49 

Sand and Insoluble Silicates 81.82 



100.00 
Had we been consulted previous to the addition of any manure, 
we should have recommended, for growing cereals in such a soil as 



40 MODEElSr HIGH FARMUSTG. 

this, a good mixture of about equal parts of cheap cotton-seed cake 
dust and well made superphosphate, containing about 14 per cent, 
of soluble phosphoric acid — with the addition of, say, one-fifth of 
their combined weight of muriate of potash. 

This mixture, well plowed in and thoroughly mixed, with a heavy 
top-dressing of slaked lime in fine powder, would not have failed to 
produce excellent results — considering the poverty of the ground. 

An analysis of the manure actually used showed it to chiefly con- 
sist of valueless alkaline salts, sand, and earthy matters (probably a 
mixture of common poudrette and sand), minute quantities of nitro- 
gen, and about ten per cent, of phosphate of lime ; the whole with a 
very fcelid odor, to mislead the farmer, who has somehow an idea 
that no manure is manure unless it has a strong and characteristic 
smell. 

This worthless mixture, foisted upon an ignorant man by a smooth- 
tongued rascal, was sold to him as phospho-guano, at the price of 
thirty dollars per ton, in lags delivered at his farm, and would have 
been dear at one-sixth of that price ! 

If agriculture is to remain the basis of the wealth of this coun- 
try ; if the United States are to ultimately become the greatest food 
producers for the world's teeming millions, there must be no such 
thing as exhaustion of the soil, or poverty in the crops. 

The preventive remedies are known to us, and it rests entirely 
with ourselves to acquire them with certainty. On the one hand 
we know that an acre of fertile land should contain a certain per- 
centage of phosphoric acid. On the other hand we have discovered 
that our own soil falls considerably short of the quantity required 
by the crops we desire to grow. We base our estimates upon the 
deficiency, and introduce a given quantity of superphosphate of 
lime. 

The law says that, every trader in manures shall guarantee the 
genuineness of his wares by the. test of chemical analysis. In other 
words, if superphosphate be sold as containing 13 per cent, of 
phosphoric acid, and be found to contain only half that quantity, the 
seller is deemed guilty of fraud and is liable to punishmenl, But 



MODEEN HIGH FARMIN^G. 41 

can any penalty be proportionate to the enormous evil caused by 
this fraud, by -which the farmer is robbed not only of his money, 
but of his time, his labor, his seed, the interest on his capital, and 
the rent of his unproductive land. 

We are taught by an old adage that, " the wise rogue is the fool's 
natural parasite," and every day brings fresh instances of the folly 
and gullibility of mankind. Now, we do not agree with Carlyle in 
thinking that the majority of our rural population is composed of 
"mostly fools." and our system of education is gradually raising 
the standard of their intellect and intelligence, to a point which will 
soon leave the villages "very little or nothing to learn from the towns. 

Notwithstanding this, it is unreasonable to suppose that any class 
of men can suddenly overcome their old habits; discard their tradi- 
tions ; abandon as worthless all those methods which have been 
handed down to them through countless generations ; and throw 
themselves into our arms without due reflection and perhaps some 
fighting. All great reforms have commenced with small minorities, 
and have had to struggle in the cause of truth, against prejudice, 
interest, and established custom, before being universally adopted. 
Is it not natural to expect that the great discoveries of scientific 
culture, should at first be sneered at and scouted by those who are 
unable as yet to understand them ? 

If the farmer will only take seriously to heart what we are trying 
to impress upon him ; if he will only realize, once and forever, that 
the science of high farming is no longer a shadow but a living and 
indispensable reality, there will soon be an end to unproductive 
lands. 

The States have placed at his disposal, and near to his hand, most 
excellent chemists, ever ready to advise and to assist him ; he can 
therefore no longer plead ignorance in extenuation of any of his 
shortcomings. 

A very trifling outlay, insignificant when compared with the im- 
portance of the result, will obtain for him all the information he 
requires : the composition of his soil, the elements in which it is 
deficient, and in what form those substances can best be introduced. 



42 MODERN HIGH FARMING. 

When these points have all been settled, and when he has pur- 
chased his manure, chemistry will again step in and determine 
whether, in Avhat he has bought, the necessary elements are actually 
contained. 

We are all inclined, more or less, to be negligent even of our 
best interests, and we are satisfied that the majority of our farmers 
do not trouble to analyze the manures they purchase, but are fain to 
rely upon the promises and representations of the dealers. Alas ! 
for the frailty of human nature ! " Opportunity makes the thief." 

How many fertilizer mixers and dealers, arc there in the world 
who are too high-souled to profit by this situation ? 

If once the custom of analyzing all purchased manures becomes a 
thing of course — looked upon as part and parcel of the commercial 
transaction ; if once our farmers will take the trouble to ascertain 
the monetary value of all the ingredients employed in making man- 
ure, they will be able to distinguish what is good from what is 
worthless, and by ceasing to buy cheap "rubbish," will deal a death- 
blow at those miserable swindlers who trade in stuff which is "only 
made to sell." 

The foregoing remarks are prompted by our strong desire to sup- 
press an evil, the dire effects of which are so widespread as to in- 
directly strike at every interest. 

If we are to have cheap food it must be produced in abundance ! 

How can it be produced in abundance if agriculturists are baulked 
in their efforts at improvement, and ruined by their purchase of ma- 
terials which can give them no return ? 

The extensive sale of these so-called fertilizers under high-flown 
names, has done much to disgust those who have been victimized, 
with all ideas of progress, and has inspired them with such distrust 
of artificial manures, that, rather than make fresh trials and run 
fresh risks, they prefer to see their lands in a stale of comparative 
sterility. 

There surely must be — there naturally is — a large number of 
manure manufacturers in the United States of strict integrity and 
undoubted honor, and we would suggest to these, that they have a 



MODERN HIGH FAEMIKG. 43 

remedy against this evil iu their own hands, which, better than any 
legislative measures, can at once stamp it out. 

Let first-class manufacturers be of less difiicult aiDproach to the 
real consumers of their produce, and let them at once pass over the 
" middlemen " Avho find in adulteration such ready means of making 
profit. Let them now organize, in every region within reasonable 
access of their works, some kind of farmers' commercial club or 
"fertilizer syndicate" (?) with an energetic president and capable 
secretary. Let it be the duty of these two officials to discover and 
to tabulate the actual requirements of every member, in all kinds of 
manures, so that at proper seasons and in convenient time they may 
be manufactured in one batch. 

Let some good chemist be chosen by the club on the one side 
and by the manufacturer on the other, and arrangements be made 
for contradictory sampling. Let the deliveries all be made at the 
same period, and allow the sampling to be performed in the presence 
of a chosen representative of the club, when the manure has been 
loaded and is ready for delivery. 

Let analyses of each parcel be made by the respective chemists, 
and in case of a sensible dilTerence between them, by a third chemist 
m.utually agreed upon and whose decision would be final. 

Let each member furnish to the club in some form agreed upon 
at a general meeting of their whole body, a suitable guarantee for 
the due payment pro rata, of the portion of manure supplied and 
invoiced to him by the club. 

Finally, let the club itself arrange with its local banker, by a 
transfer of the securities which it has received, to guarantee the pay- 
ment of the manufacturers' invoices in due season, say at four or six 
months, from the date of delivery. 

The advantages of some such a system as this, appear to us to be 
very striking, and we feel certain that its adoption would be pro- 
ductive of mutual benefit and general satisfaction. 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE DIPPEKENT KINDS OP MANUKE NOTES ON VEGETABLE JIA- 

NUKES ANIMAL PRODUCTS THEIR ANlSTtJAL RECKLESS 

WASTE ESTIMxiTE OP THE LOSS TO AGRICtJLTtl RE 

HINTS ON THEIR PRESERVATION AND UTILIZATION GUANOS 

DESCRIBED AND ANALYZED THEIR VARIABLE QUALITY 

FISH MANURES TABLE OP NITROGENOUS SUBSTANCES. 

A complete description and analysis of all the substances used as 
manure would of itself fill a considerable volume, but we doubt 
wlietber the advantage of sucb a treatise would be proportionate to 
the labor of its compilation. 

We shall therefore confine our remarks to those of generally recog- 
nized utility, classing them as vegetable, animal, mixed (or farm- 
yard), and mineral manures. 

Vegetable Manure. 

Every description of plant — roots, stalks, leaves and seeds — 
becomes, when plowed into the soil, a valuable fertilizing agent. 

The most important, however, are those of the leguminous species, 
thanks to their long and trailing roots, by means of which they pen- 
etrate to a considerable depth into the earth, and thus acquire from 
below, elements which other jilants are unable to attain. 

From this reason the benefit of rotatory crops becomes manifest, 
and we understand at once why wheat crops are so much more 
plentiful, when following two or three crops of clover or luzerne. 

The quantity of roots and stubble, or waste, from a crop of clover 
has been estimated to weigh, when dried at a normal temjoerature, 
one thousand pounds per acre. This would contain about fifteen 



MODERN HIGH FARMING. 45 

pounds of assimilable uitrogen, and consequently be equal to nearly 
two tons of ordinary farm-yard manure. 

Oil Cakes contain five per cent, of nitrogen and about three 
per cent, of phosphoric acid, with traces of potash. When damaged 
or otherwise unfit for cattle-feeding, they may be employed as ma. 
nures with excellent results, especially on sandy or too porous soils. 

In some districts near the coast, the sea weeds gathered along the 
shore are found to have a beneficial action, but as they contain a 
maximum of one per cent, of uitrogen and insignificant portions of 
phosphoric acid, we must consider their efiiciency to solely arise 
from their slow carbonization or decomposition. 

"We have already dwelt at considerable length, in ^ur previous 
chapters, upon the chemical action of vegetable organic matter on the 
various bodies contained in the soil, and it is only necessary to repeat 
here that in all cases where it is desired to grow cereals and to pro- 
duce plentiful crops on an economical basis, the farmer will do well, 
rather than sell his green crops, to plow them into his wheat field as 
manures, and to plow them in evenly and with an unsparing hand. 

Animal Mantires. 

Those within this category most worthy of attention are human 
dejections, guano, blood, fish, wool, rags, horns, hoofs, hair, and 
all animal refuse from the slaughter houses. 

The efficacy of night-soil as a fertilizer has been recognized from 
time immemorial by practical farmers, but it is still more so now 
that the advancement of science has permitted us to accurately esti- 
mate its valuable elements, and to judge of the reckless manner in 
which they are yearly thrown away. 

If we take the average weight of the entire population in the Uni- 
ted States at ninety pounds each for men, women and children, 
we find that the daily product proportionate to this weight must not 
be less than two pounds per head. 

The present population being estimated at fifty-five millions, we 
should reach the figure of fifty-five thousand tons jjer day, or, in 
round figures, twenty million tons per year. 



46 MODERN HIGH FARMING. 

Taking the active principles to be in the proportion of 27 pounds 
of nitrogen and 6 pounds of pliosphoric acid per ton, we can easily 
arrive at the annual total value by the following simple calculation : 

27 + 23,000,000= 270,000 tons nitrogen, at $50 per ton, $13,500,000 
6 + 20,000,000= 60,000 " phosphoric acid, $30 " 1,800,000 

Net total value, $15,300,000 

It is a standing reproach to chemical science that we have not 
been able to devise a means of practically turning these vast agricul- 
tural necessities to account, and that because of our inability to con- 
veniently store and render them inoffensive, our legislators are com- 
pelled to send them through the sewers into the sea. 

All the attempts hitherto made to recover these substances from 
the sewage by means of precipitation have ended in failure, from the 
fact that chemistry has not yet discovered a method of effecting this 
precipitation, owing to the extreme solubility and volatility of the 
efficient constituents. 

If these elements of fertilization are ever to be turned to good 
account in tlie proper channels for their employment, they must be 
kept out of the sewers, where they do immense harm by contamina- 
ting our drinking water and propagating diphtheria, and be sub- 
mitted to some practical process of rapid desiccation. 

The system by which these materials are turned to account in 
some parts of Europe, consists in allowing them to deposit in 
tanks, built for the purpose. In due course the supernatent liquid is 
decanted off and used for the manufacture of sulphate of ammonia ; 
while the solid portion is dried up by the addition of slaked lime, 
and sold in bags under the familiar name of powdlreWe. 

A good sample of this manure, lately submitted to us for 
analysis, was found to contain forty-eight per cent, of organic 
matter, two and one-fourth per cent, of nitrogen, six per cent, of 
phosphoric acid and ten per cent of lime ; and would doubtless be 
productive of very excellent results in the field. 

Wherever such operations are practicable, we strongly recom- 
mend all farmers to build small tanks in various portions of their 



MODERN HIGH FARMING. 47 

ground. These tanks should be about five feet square and six or 
seven feet in depth, and must be carefully lined with good Portland 
cement. Into these tanks should be thrown the whole of the night 
soil collected in the neighborhood ; care being taken to keep them 
well covered by nicely adapted wooden lids, and to exclude the 
entry of water. The occasional addition of finely powdered 
slaked lime will assist the drying and effectually destroy all smell. 

Guano. 

No name is more widely and generally known, even to the smal- 
lest child, than that of this popular fertilizer, and although it has 
served for many years as a cloak to swindlers of every kind, who 
have sold under its name piles of worthless trash, farmers can- 
not forget their old affection for it. 

There can be no doubt that, for a considerable length of time 
after its introduction, very marvelous effects followed the applica- 
cation of this manure, but the enormous and continual drain upon 
the production, and the never- varying result of speculation and job- 
bery, would seem to have told a tale upon it, and the quality is now 
of a very variable nature, with a tendency to become more and 
more so, as time goes on. 

The principal sources of supply are Peru, Chili, Bolivia and the 
South Sea Islands ; and the deposits proceed from a species of sea 
fowl known as Guanaes, which feed upon the small fish that liter- 
ally swarm the waters near the coast. 

The high percentage of nitrogen contained in the Peruvian ship- 
ments of former years, must be attributed to the absence of rain, 
which characterizes that country; those arriving from other regions 
having lost a considerable portion of their ammoniacal salts through 
the action of water. 

The trade in Peruvian guano is monopolized by the Peruvian 
government, and the immense deposits sometimes attain a depth 
of one hundred feet. 

This latter fact has induced a great deal of controversy as to the 
period from which we should date their commencement, some author- 



48 



MODERN HIGH FAEMING. 



ities being of opinion tliat it must necessarily be before the deluge. 
In his very able book upon tlie subject, Mr. F. de Rivero ad- 
vances some skilful arguments to prove that they are of more 
recent date ; and, basing his calculations upon the existing quantity 
of about 20,000,000 tons, he says : 

"Presuming the constant presence of only 264,000 of these birds, 
(and I am perfectly convinced there is nothing at all exaggerated in 
these figures), supposing each bird to furnish but one ounce of ma- 
nure in every twenty-four hours, we easily arrive at the figure named, 
in a period of between five and six tliousand years." 
- . The value of real guanos from all sources is estimated upon tlie 
basis of their nitrogen, ammonia, phosphate and organic matter, 
and when of sound quality they have generally realized from. $65 to 
|70 per ton. 

Tlie following are the analyses of two cargoes purporting to be 
of the same quality and shipped from the same port at tlie same 
time, arriving in London at the commencement of 1882 •• 



Peruvlvn Guano. 
Cakgo Ko. 1. 

Moisture 10.00 

/ 



.53.50 



*Orgaiiic Mal.tcr, 
Salts of Amiuoiiia 

Phosphate of Limo 19.53 

tPhosphoric Acid 3.13 

Alkaline Salts 8.00 

Insoluble and Sandy Matters 0.8G 

100.00 

♦Nitrogen 1 5 30 

tSoluble Phosphate of Lime 6.76 



Cargo No. 2. 



. . 15.38 
..14.72 

..33.13 
. traces 
.. 8.93 
..27.95 
100.00 
.. 3.70 
..none 



As tliese are far from being exceptional instances of the great 
uncertainly of tliese products, we feel compelled — while admitting 
that no better manure than good guano is to be found — to advise the 
discontinuance of tlieir use, and the employment of well-made 
chemical substitutes, until shippers guarantee them to contain a 
stii3ulated minimum percentage of the active principles. 



MODERN HIGn FARMING. 49 

FiSlT. 

The refuse of all kinds of fish afford sources of the richest and 
most desirable liind of manure, and it is unfortunate that some 
wholesale and cheap method of popularizing it has not been fortli- 
coming. When cooked, deprived of its oil and water by heavy 
pressure, and thoroughly dried, it is easily reduced to a fine powder, 
of which the following is an average analysis : 

Moisture 1.30 

♦Nitrogenous Organic Jlatter 78.01 

Alkaline Salts 5.30 

Chloride of Sodium Traces. 

Phosphate of Lime 15.00 

Magnesia 0.33 

Carbonate of Lime Traces 

lusoluable Siliceous Matter 0.06 

100.00 
*Equal to Nitrogen 10.00 

Blood, Wool-Refuse, Hair, Hoofs, Horrs and Offal. — 
All these are valuable sources of nitrogen, and in some cases may 
be economically and beneficially employed. They call for no 
special mention and are nearly all old friends of the agricul- 
turist. We append a list of sundry materials showing their ap- 
proximate percentage in assimilable nitrogen, which may not be 
without utility. 

Table showing the quantity of nitrogen, in pounds, contained in evert) 
one hundred pounds of the following substances : 

Nitrogen. 

100 pounds of Shoddy contain 7Vij lbs. 

100 " Wool Du-t contain 03^ lbs. 

100 " Dried Blood contain 12 lbs. 

100 " Rape Cake contain 5 lbs. 

100 " Cotton Cake contain 53^ lbs. 

100 " Sugar Scum contain _ 3 lbs. 

100 " Glue Refuse contain 2]/, lbs. 

100 " Leather Cuttings contain 8 lbs. 

100 " Crude Ammonia contain TJ^ lbs. 



CHAPTER X. 

FARM- YARD MANURES COMPOSITION OF THEIR LIQUID AND SOLID 

ELEMENTS COMPARATIVE VALUE OP ABSORBENTS, "WITH 

ANALYSES COMPOSITION OF VARIOUS STRAWS SUPERIOR 

VALUE OF THE LIQUID SUBSTANCE HOW TO PRESERVE 

AND UTILIZE IT TREATMENT OF MANURE HEAPS HOW 

TO COMPLETE THEIR VALUE AS FERTILIZERS THEIR DE- 
COMPOSITION FORMATION AND DESCRIPTION OF HUMUS 

EXPERIMENTS ON FRESHLY MADE AND FERMENTED MA- 
NURES RESULTS OF EACH EXPERIMENT GENERAL RE- 
MARKS. 

In entering upon an examination of what is perliaps the most im- 
portant matter with whicli we have had to deal, we shall carefully 
avoid all ideas of prejudice and partiality. 

None of us ignore that farm yard manures have for many cen- 
turies been the prop and mainstay of our agricultural operations, 
and no science was necessary to teach us that it owed its virtues to 
its happy combination of physical and chemical constituents. 

If it were possible for those who cultivate old or mature soils to 
manufacture a sufficiency of this manure, the introduction of chem- 
ical substitutes would in their case be unnecessary, and the problem 
which is occupying our attention would never have arisen. 

The requisite quantity to constitute complete restitution could, 
however, be only attained by literally putting back the whole of the 
crops and living things which have derived direct and indirect sus- 
tenance from the soil; and hence, even if such an idea were not ab- 
surd, it would be impracticable, since the grains, seeds, cattle, poultry, 
milk, butter and wool, are all sent to market and go to feed the teem- 
ing populations of the towns. 



MODERN HIGH FARMING. 51 

Such manures as we are able to gather up in and about our farms, 
from all sources, may consequently be considered as the mere excess 
taken from the soil by the crops gathered in, and would certainly 
not suffice of themselves to stay the already marked impoverishment 
and eventual exhaustion which must naturally be the effect of such 
a comprehensible cause. 

We may, therefore, consider the employment of chemical and artifi- 
cial fertilizing matters, as not one whit less necessary in places where 
an abundance of offal appears to exist, than it is in other circumstan- 
ces where there is very little or none at all, and the liberal employ- 
ment, judicious selection and economical purchase or manufacture 
of sound manurial materials is the fundamental condition of suc- 
cessful high farming. 

We must consider it a matter of very third rate, if of any impor- 
tance to us, whether a manure is vegetable, animal, mineral, natural 
or artificial, having merely to assure ourselves by chemical analysis 
that it contains the needful elements, and that by its emploj'ment we 
can increase our crops and enhance our profits. 

The value of stable dung must not be estimated upon its actual 
richness in ammonia or phosphoric acid within a short period of its 
production, but must be calculated on its wonderful physical and 
chemical action on the elements of the soil and the air, and upon its 
merits as a vehicle or conductor into which completing quantities 
of outside substances can be introduced, decomposed, and rapidly 
made available. 

The composition of its different constituents may here be set 
forth in the. following order : 

Analysis of various ki7ids of Stable Urine. 

Sheep Horses Oxen Goats Pigs 

Water 06.40 90.50 91.40 98.30 98.20 

♦Organic Matters 1.00 5.50 5.50 0.90 0.50 

tAlkaline Salts 2.60 4.00 3.10 0.90 1.30 



100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 

*Coutainiiig Nitrogen 1.70 1.75 1.50 traces minute quan. 

t " Phosplioric Acid. . .traces traces traces traces traces 



52 MODERN HIGH FARMING. 

The quantity per head yearly produced of this liquid may be 
estimated at : 

For Cows Four to Five Tons . 

" Horses Three to Four Tons . 

Analysis of various Jcinds of Solid Excreta. 

Sheep 

Water 68.71 

• ^Organic Matters 23.10 

tAlkaline Salts 8.13 

100.00 



lOKSES 


Oxen 


Pigs 


78.30 


79.72 


75.00 


10.10 


10.04 


20.15 


2.54 


4.24 
100.00 


4.85 


100.00 


100.00 


0..55 


0.32 


70 


1.22 


0.74 


«.87 



♦Containing Kitrogen 0.72 

t " Phosphoric Acid 1.52 

The result of many investigations of the mixed matters ahovc 
detailed, prove them to contain in eveiy hundred pounds rather Icfs 
than half a pound of nitrogen and about two pounds of phosphoric 
acid. 

The collection, absorption, and association of the liquid with the 
solid matters, being the most important factor in the manufacture of 
an efllcicnt product, it is in all cases advisable to use abundant 
quantities of cereal straws for littering or bedding, in preference to 
any other material; thej' having been found to possess the greatest 
possible capacity for holding moisture, as indicated by the following 
figures : 

Table slioioing the powers of ahsorhing water in 2Ji hours, hy every 100 

pounds of the follmcing kinds of straws, as compared 

xoith those of other su'jstances. 

Wheat Straw absorhs 110 pounds. 



Barley 
Oats 
Colza 
Corn 



.285 



" 200 

" 102 

Marl absorbs 40 

Dry vegetable soil absorbs, 50 

The chief active principles which form the composition of cereal 
straws and other vegetable matter, commonly used for bedding in 



PiiosnioKic Acid 


Nitrogen 


0.25 


0.24 


0.15 


0.17 


o.co 


0.23 


0.21 


0.28 


0.8G 


0.19 


0.36 


0.75 


0.28 


0.10 


0.22 


0.20 


0.59 


1.79 



MODERIf HIGH FARMIKO. 53 

stables, have been ascertained to be the following : the quantities 
shown in the table being those contained in every ICO pounds, by 
weight of the substance analyzed. 

Ashes 

Wbeat Straw 3.51 

Rye " 2.79 

Barley " 5.24 

• Oats " 5.75 

Corn " 4.00 

Colza Tops 3.85 

Velchc " 5.10 

Bean " 3.10 

Pea " 5.00 

We have very frequently observed that in the minds of some 
farmers — producers of large quantities of stable offal — the pre- 
vailing idea is, that the solid portions are those really valuable, and 
that the liquid may be neglected and abandoned. Our great object 
in giving the above analyses, is to impress upon such men as these 
the utter fallacy of their opinions, and the necessity for their im- 
mediate reform, and to persuade them that they are continually 
making serious losses by the w^aste of this precious fertilizer. 

We suggest the adoption of a good system of drainage in every 
stable, the flooring of which should be upon a slight incline to allow 
the liquid to pass off with facility, by means of underground pipes 
made if possible from good refractory clay. The urine should be con- 
ducted to tanks or reservoirs, of a similar nature to those already 
recommended in a previous chapter, and be kept well covered over; 
these tanks should be connected with a pump, by means of which 
the liquid could frequently be made to saturate the forming heaps 
of manure, thereby serving to steady and regulate the fermentation 
or process of combustion going on within. 

If due weight is attached to those points, they will produce the 
double advantage of increasing the quantity of ammonia contained 
in the ultimate manure, and of decreasing the risk of contaminating 
the wells or springs made use of bj' the cattle, if not by the popula- 
tion of the neighborhood. 



54 MODERN" HIGH FARMIISTG. 

The solid portions and tlie saturated straw sliould be allowed to 
remain under the cattle as long as is consistent with health and con- 
venience. And when forked up should he carefully mixed and 
deposited m uniform layers upon the heap ; care being taken to 
break up and disseminate all lumpy portions, before the application 
of the liquid by means of the pumping process above described. 
The very highest possible results will be obtained if, from the com- 
mencement of each heap, thehabit is contracted of regularly adding 
to each layer, as it is put on, a certain evenly distributed quantity of 
some artificial manure, the nature of which will be dictated, and 
vary, according to the wants of the soil and contemplated crops. 

Supposing a high grade phosphatic material combined with 
potash to be necessary, nothing could be better than the addition of 
a good, soluble, ten or twelve per cent, superphosphate of lime, 
and muriate of potash, in the proportion of twenty-five pounds of 
the first and ten pounds of the second, to every hundred pounds 
of manure. Whereas, if nitrogen is the element required to pre- 
ponderate, the introduction into the compost of wool refuse, leather 
scraps, glue refuse, blood and other offal, collected from the various 
dealers, manufacturers and slaughter-houses, in the nearest towns 
is highly recommended. 

The chemical transformations or reactions which go on in the 
compost heaps during their fermentation, are of too complex a na- 
ture to be fully described within the limits we have prescribed for 
ourselves, nor is its precise knowledge of any necessity for practi 
cal purposes. 

We shall therefore rest content with explaining that a process of 
slow combustion or carbonization very soon sets in, and serves to 
maintain a temperature of about 100° to 105° Fahrenheit. The air 
within the mass being composed of carbonic acid and nitrogen 
gases, with traces only of oxygen. 

By making a clean incision in such a fermenting manure heap 
as we have described, through the centre from the top to the bottom, 
we shall find that while the straw at the surface maintains its normal 
appearance, it gradually assumes a dark brown color towards 



MODERIsr HIGH FARMIJSTG. 55 

tlie middle and is altogetlier lost lower down, in a black slimy mass 
of decomposition called humus. This body is formed under the 
influence of atmospheric oxygen by the union of certain elements 
contained in the straw or vegetable matters, with the ammonia 
emanating from the fermenting animal matters urea, uric acid, etc. 

Tliat the presence and intervention of these vegetable elements 
is indispenable to the preservation or fixation of ■ the generating 
nitrogen, is demonstrated by the fact that, if the animal matters were 
left to ferment by themselves; this element would rapidly change 
into the phosphate, thence into the benzoate, and finally into the 
carbonate of ammonia, in which form it would immediately vol- 
atilize and be a total loss. 

Humus therefore not only changes this volatile carbonate into a 
fixed and staple product, but possesses the faculty of absorbing and 
retaining fresh nitrogen from the air and rendering it assimilable 
when transferred to the soil. 

We hope that by these explanations we have impressed upon 
farmers the necessity of allowing their farm yard manures to 
undergo a thorough process of fermentation, and to completely rot 
or carbonize before making use of them in the field, and in order to 
make our meaning still more cleai', let it be remembered that : 

A. — If freshly made manure be put into the soil, the saline and 
nitrogenous portions will all be washed away by the first fall 
of rain, and lost. 

B. — If the manure be allowed to thoroughly ferment, the nitro- 
genous matters will remain insoluble in the soil, and will thus 
be held at the disposal of the plants ready for assimilation. 

A series of very interesting experiments upon the laws laid down 
by the illustrious Paul Thenard, were recently made by ourselves, 
in verification of these assertions, with the following results : 

The drainings from a field near Leeds, in Yorkshire, liberally 
dressed with freshly made manure, were submitted to careful 
analysis after a heavy shower of rain, and found to contain note- 
worthy quantities of nitrogenous matters. 



50 MODERlSr HIGH FARMING. 

After publishing the complete results of these experiments, ■v\'e 
■sverc enabled to collect the drainage from a large field in Ports- 
mouth, Hampshire, which had been thorouglj" dressed with com- 
pletely fermented manure, and in this case the water was found 
to bear mere traces of ammonia or nitrogenous substances. 

A few experimentors have striven within the past few j'cars to 
persuade themselves and the world that the total abandonment of 
farm yard manure, and the sole employment of chemical fertilizers, 
woiild result in immense economy and increased production; but in 
nearly every case within our knowledge, where the seduction of 
these theories has prevailed over common sense, the result has been, 
to say the least, discouraging. 

That artificial manures of every kind are necessary, we have 
alwaj'S admitted and shall alwa3's propound ; that as supplements 
in all cases, and substitutes in some, their constant employment is 
naturally indicated, we readily agree ; but that they can ever profit- 
ably and iisefully replace those made on the farm either physically 
or chemically, is a proposition, to our minds, too ridiculous to 
merit discussion. 

When due care has not been taken in their preparation and 
treatment, their actual and normal percentage of ammonia may 
be slight, and their rahie, from that standpoint, insignificant ; but 
even then, (and we are taking them at their worst), if their fermen- 
tation has been complete, and their rapid oxidation assured by 
thorough plowing in and frequent turning over in a well-conditioned 
soil, no artificial nitrogenous fertilizer can ever be compared to 
them for economy and proportionate cflicacity. 



CHAPTER XI. 

MINERAL MANURES BONES AND WHAT THEY TAUGHT US 

SULPHURIC ACID AND NITRATE OP SODA BONE ASH 

ANIMAL CHARCOAL, OR BONE BLACK BONE MEAL 

SULPHATE OF AMMONIA ITS GREAT POWER OP DECOM- 
POSING OTHER MANURES HOW TO DETECT IMPURE NITRATE 

OF SODA NITRATE OF POTASH, OR SALTPETRE PHOS- 
PHATE OP LIME RIVER PHOSPHATES CANADIAN PHOS- 
PHATE A RIDICULOUS EXTORTION. 

^Vc liiivc now to undertake the examination of those mineral 
fertilizers which come next in order, and which form the staples 
of that great and advancing industry, chemical manure manufac- 
ture. 

For the sake of comprehensiveness and brevitj^ we propose to 
divide our subject in the following order : 

First. — A hasty glance at the principal sources and the agricul- 
tural value of phosphatic and other raw materials of a min- 
eral nature, with analytical tables showing their composition. 

Second. — A description of the principal sources of sulphur pyrites, 
and of sulphuric acid and superphosphate manufacture, 
with brief notes on the mixing of various compound manures. 

As we have already roughl^^ described, in a preceding chapter, 
how mineral phosphates are found in nature, we need merely refer 
oiu' readers to the particulars there given, and at ouce attack the 
practical question before us. 

Bones are a very old and very favorite manure, and it is to then- 
emploj'ment and to the researches ensuing upon their marked effect 
that Ave owe our discoveries relating to tlie part played by plios- 
phoric acid in the soil. 



53 MODERN" HIGH FARMING. 

Their extensive use in tlie mamif acture of phosphorus has, how- 
ever, so much enhanced their commercial value, that we may look 
upon them as beyond the reach of the agriculturist. 

When dissolved in sulphuric acid and mixed with nitrogenous 
materials, or farm-yard offal, to form complete manures, they may 
be considered, as occupying the very foremost place in the order of 
merit as fertilizing agents. 

They are frequently used with nitrate of soda, in the raw crushed 
state, as a dressing to sandy soils and pasture lands ; but we have 
personally found their action in these cases to be very slow, and 
their assimilation a work of time, so that we cannot recommend 
a continuance of the practice. 

Bone Ash results from the burning of bones and is chiefly ex- 
ported from the cattle-raising districts of South America, where, 
fuel being scarce, the bones are burnt in the process of extracting 
the fat from the slaughtered oxen. 

Animal Charcoal ok Bone Black is justly esteemed by all 
those who are fortunate enough to obtain it on reasonable terms. 
It is an excellent absorbent, and is extensively used in sugar refin- 
eries, Jjeing only delivered to agriculture when it has lost its powers 
of discoloring the juices. 

Bone Meal is the impalpable powder of bones, from which a 
steam process has succeeded in extracting all the gelatine. 

The following table shows the general composition of these ma- 
terials : 

Crushed Bone Bone 
Bones. Ash. Meal. 

Moisture C.94 2.1S 5.37 

♦Organic Matter 36.93 6.43 17.15 

Pliospliate of Lime 48.26 69.95 68.03 

Carbonate of Lime and undetermined Mineral Salts.. 7. 40 14.01 9.16 

Insoluble Matter 0.41 7.43 0.40 

100.00 100.00 100.00 

♦Containing Nitrogen 3.72 Traces. 1.58 

SuLPH.VTE OP Ammonia is largely obtained from animal urine, 
but chiefly from the ammoniacal liquor derived from gas works 



MODEKN HIGH FAEMING. 59 

after the purification of gas. These liquors are mixed with fresh 
slacked lime and forced to the top of small towers, into which are 
fitted a series of trays. The liquid flowing over the edges of these 
trays in a succession of small cataracts, is met and traversed by a 
column of steam, which during its ascension, deprives it of all its 
ammonia. 

The steam thus charged is conducted to a coil of perforated 
pipes in a tank of sulphuric acid, to which, as it passes through, the 
ammonia is yielded up. 

When the acid is fully saturated, it is led into another tank and 
allowed to settle, and finally is subjected to a process of hot concen- 
tration to effect the crystallization of the sulphate of ammonia. 
This salt has the form of white or greyish transparent crystals, is 
sharp and bitter to the taste, is soluble in twice its weight of cold 
water, and contains an average of twenty-one per cent, of nitrogen. 
We have before alluded to it as an invaluable source of nitrogen, 
and this, although sufficient, is not the only virtue for which it recom- 
mends itself. 

Our own experiments induce us to believe that when introduced 
into the soil, the sulphuric acid set free by its natural transformation, 
largely assists the decomposition of all surrounding organic remains, 
and transforms any phosphoric acid that may be present into acid 
or soluble phosphate. 

Nitrate of Soda is a natural mineral, principally found in 
Chili and Peru, and shipped from Iquique. It occurs in large beds, 
several feet thick, intimately mixed up with sulphate, chloride, 
iodide of sodium and many other bodies, and when in this state is 
known in commerce as caliche, or crude nitre, of which the follow- 
ing is a typical analysis : 

Nitrate of Sodium 63.92 

Sulphate " 4.01 

Sulphate of Lime Traces. 

Sulphate of Magnesia Traces. 

Chloride of Sodium 28.32 

Iodide " V6 

Insoluble Matter S.99 

100.00 



60 MODERN HIGH FARMIXG. 

After having uudergoue the refiuiug process, it coutaius 95 
per cent, of pure nitrate of soda, and 14 to 16 per cent, of nitro- 
gen, and is then found to be a highly stimulating manure for grass- 
growing in meadow lauds. 

In consequence, however, of its very high price, it is frequently, 
if not generalh', the object of adulteration, and should, therefore, 
never be purchased from any but respectable firms with a written 
guarantee of its analytical contents. Even when this is obtained, it 
should not be employed before its genuineness has been ascertained, 
and the following rough but sufficiently accurate test can be 
applied by every farmer, when no chemical laboratory is near at 
hand. 

A small portion of the nitrate is to be mixed in a tea cup with 
sufficient oil of vitriol (sulphuric acid), to just cover it, when, if a 
copious quantity of greenish, suffocating vapor be given off, it will 
be evident that the article contains a large proportion of common 
salt, this being, from the similarity of its appearance, the adulterant 
generally used. 

Nitrate of soda plays a very leading part in the manufacture of 
sulphuric acid, as will be seen later on, being used in the proportion 
of about 5 per cent, of the weight of sulphur consumed. 

The fact of its costing from fiftj" to sixty dollars per ton, renders 
the question of its economical application one of the most difficult 
with which manufacturers have still to deal : and there are unfortu- 
nately many works where, owing to unskillful manipulation, instead 
of five per ce/U., double that quantity more correctly expresses what 
is used or wasted. 

Supposing, therefore, that in an acid works which burns ~,000 
tons of sulphur per annum, in any of its forms, 10 per cent, of 
nitrate is consumed, we may fairly consider that there is an unnec- 
essary waste of 100 tons of nitrate of soda, and this at $50 per ton 
represents a yearly dead loss of $5,000. 

There are a great number of our sulphuric acid manufacturers who 
do not give this matter sufficient attention, and who, consequently 
can make no real profits ou their acid productions. 



MODEKX niGK FARMING. 61 

Nitrate of Potash, commonly called saltpetre, is industrially 
produced by the double decomposition, resulting from a mixture of 
nitrate of soda and muriate of potash, with the application of heat. 
Commercial saltpetre contains 10 to 12 per cent of nitrogen and from 
40 to 44 per cent, of potash. 

It is soluble in three times its weight of water at an ordinary 
temperature. 

MuuiATE OF Potash is, as we have already pointed out, the best 
form in which to introduce potash, either directly into the soil, or 
as a constituent iu a compound manure. 

When freed from its chloride of sodium, sulphate and chloride of 
magnesia, which always accompany it, the salt contains from 45 to 
48 per cent, of pure potash. 

It is soluble in five times its weight of water, and has a salt and 
bitter taste. 

Phosphate of LiiiE. — The most readily accessible materials for 
consumption in the United States, are the phospliorites of Charles- 
ton, South Carolina, and the apatites, or crj'stallized phosphates, of 
Canada. 

The phosphorites of the Charleston basin occur in the form 
of nodules, bedded in the clay and sand. They cover an immense 
area, and are found iu detached deposits, at irregular intervals, all 
along the water-courses of the country ; through the swamps and 
on the banks of the rivers and streams. 

They are generally irregular iu form and color, being partially 
rounded by the action of water, and of a yellow, green, or brown ; 
while fussilized remains of fish are always, more or less, intimately 
mixed up with them. 

They are distinguished in commerce by the names. Land and 
Eiver phosphates — the first being the softest and lightest colored. 

They are dug up and submitted to a washing process, which 
*"re; s them from nearly all the sand and clay, and when thoroughly 
uiied after this operation, are ready for grinding, and present the 
following average composition : 



ii2 MODERN" HIGH FAKMING. 

1 2 3 

Moisture 4.89 3.10 7.89 

Water of combination 2.01 1.55 1.57 

*Phosplio.-ic Acid 25.60 23 33 22.10 

Lime. 37.19 30.02 37.18 

Magnesia 0.75 0,80 traces. 

Oxide of Iron and Alumina 9.16 8.70 10.02 

Carbonic Acid 4.09 5.00 3.97 

Sulpliuric Acid 1.77 2.00 )'^o 

Cliloride of Sodium 2.03 1.97 [-^§ 5.15 

Fluorine and los-s 2.22 2.14 ) a ^ 

Insoluble and Sandy Matter 10.29 15.39 12.12 

100.00 100.00 100.00 

*Bqual to Tribasic Phcsphates of Lime 55.80 CO. 85 48.17 

The river phosphates are generally of a somewhat higher percent- 
age than the above, and uow^ furnish the bulk of our supply. They 
usually contain minute quantities of iron pyrites, are of a dark gray, 
nearly approaching to black color, and are extremely hard and 
difficult to reduce to an imijalpable powder. 

When dried and ready for shipment tlie general average result 
of their analysis is the following : 

1. 2. 3. 

Moisture 0.63 0.71 0.56 

Water of com biiiatiou and loss oa ignition ... 3.09 1.27 2.80 

♦Phosphoric Acid 29.03 27.30 25.33 

Lime 45.27 39.22 39.20 

Magnesia Traces. 0.35 0.27 

Oxide of Iron and Alumina 9.10 9 36 10.15 

Carbonic Acid 3.34 3.18 2.70 

Sulphuric Acid, j 

Chlorideof Sodium I By difference 3.42 6.70 4.79 

Fluorine, J 6.13 n.cji 14.20 

Insoluble Sandy Matters 100.00 100.00 100.00 

♦Equal to Tribasic Phosphate of Lime 63.28 59.50 55.20 

Tliey are mined from the rivers under concessions from the gov- 
ernment, in consideration of certain royalties paid into the State 
coffers, for every ton extracted and taken away. 

The deposits are very extensively worked throughout the entire 
year, but most energy is displayed during the summer months, vfhen 
they afford employment to thousands of work-people. 



MODERN HIGH FARMING, 63 

The dredging apparatus ordinarily employed is fitted with 
washers which effect the separation of the phosphate from the sand 
and other extraneous bodies, while being raised through the water. 
Both qualities of these phosphates, when finely ground, afford an 
excellent material for superphosphate manufacture, despite their 
somewhat heavy percentage in iron and alumina, and their large pro 
portion of insoluble matter. 

As they contain very little carbonate of lime, their treatment 
entails no waste of sulphuric acid, and they possess the superiority 
over many other phosphates, when properly decomposed, of yield- 
ing up all their phosphoric acid in a soluble form. 

Canadian Phosphate occurs in the form of bottle-green crystal- 
line masses, more or less associated with portions of the gneissic 
rocks or mica slates which surround it in its native fissures. It is 
in all respects a mineral, and is found in clearly defined veins and 
cavities, extending sometimes to a very considerable depth, and be- 
coming richer in their yield as they go down. 

The following analyses are fairly representative of its general com- 
position, and have been selected from many hundreds made by our- 
selves and differing only in trifling details: 

1 2 3 

Moisture and Water of combination 0.09 0.13 0.59 

♦Phosphoric Acid 41.13 37.63 35.28 

Lime 53.ro 50.95 47.19 

CarbonicAcid 1-37 l.CO 1.18 

Sulphuric Acid traces 0.26 traces 

Oxideoflron 0.06 1.12 2.51 

Alumina 0.54 0% 3.60 

Magnesia traces traces traces 

Fluorine 2.14 4.07 5 30 

Insoluble Siliceous matters 0.97 3.28 4.35 

100.00 100.00 100.00 

♦Equal to Tribasic Phosphates of Lime 89. 65 82.05 76.90 ^ 

When pure it is a fluor-apatite, composed of phosphate of lime 
and fluoride of calcium, and is generally presented to commerce in 
the rough, in blocks varying in weight, from one to several 
hundred pounds, of a beautiful green color and brittle texture. 



64 MODERN HIGH FAEMING. 

It is, however, as the foregoing analyses show, not very frequently 
met with in a high state of purity, but generally contains certain 
portions of iron and alumina, besides being mixed up with quanti' 
ties of an inert kind of gangue, from which its separation (by hand 
work) is arduous and costly. 

These phosphates are extremely hard and difficult to grind, and 
may be said to contain no carbonate of lime. Their percentage of 
iron and alumina is not sufficiently high to militate against their sat- 
isfactory decomposition, but what causes them to be regarded with 
disfavor, is their variable, but always considerable proportion of 
fluorine, which, upon being brought into contact with sulphuric 
acid in the manufacturing process, generates large volumes of most 
irritating and poisonous vapors of hydrofluoric acid. 

The great inconvenience and danger arising from this cause, can 
only be obviated by bringing the acid to bear upon the mineral and 
effecting its decomposition, in well-closed mixers. If these mixers 
are provided with proper ventilating shafts, to carry off the gases as 
soon as they are set free, no cause for apprehension will any longer 
exist, and the material will yield the most satisfactory results, 

A large majority of manure producei'S in this country have, how- 
ever, hesitated to make the needful changes in their plant, and have 
preferred the use of South Carolina phosphates, as offering much 
less difficulty from an industrial, and yet excellent results from a 
commercial point of view. In consequence of this policy the 
greater portion of Canadian apatites have always been, and still are, 
shipped to England, whence they very frequently come back to 
America as superphosphates of lime. It is to be devoutly hoped 
that the rapid progress now being made in all the arts throughout 
the United States, will shortly induce the larger manufacturers to 
reconsider their policy and make more use of this excellent and high 
grade phosphate. 

Why should American farmers bear the enormous loss represented 
by the cost of freight from Montreal to English ports, and from 
thence back again to their own ; amounting in the aggregate on the 
manufactured article to a total of seven or eight dollars per ton ? 



MODERlSr iTIGH FARMING. 65 

If the use of chemical manures is to become a uaiversal institu- 
tioa and a " thing of course," they must be placed within reach of 
consumers, at the lowest possible price ; because, were the main- 
tenance or increase in the quantity and quality of our crops to be 
simply counterbalanced by the cost of the fertilizers, no ultimate ad- 
vantage could accrue from their application. 

The mixture of finely powdered raw phosphates with farm-yard 
manures, in a manner similar to that pointed out in our last chapter, 
is productive of excellent results. And their direct application in 
the same raw stute to lands of which the soils contain an abundance 
of sulphuric, liuraic, carbonic, or acetic acid, is also very successful. 

In each case, however, an impalpable state of powder and extreme 
Btate of division in the soil are absolutely indispensable. 

Although the principal sources from whence phosphates can be 
most economically obtained in this country are those just dealt with, 
it will be interesting for the sake of comparison, to introduce a table 
of analyses of the different qualities and forms produced and used 
throughout the world. (See page 66.) 

It will have been noticed that in all cases the chemical value of 
these bodies is determined by their percentage of phosphoric acid, 
and it is therefore advisable to here set forth an approximate trans- 
lation of the scientific formula by which the composition of a phos- 
phatic body is ascertained. 

The substance destined for examination is first treated with 
boiling nitric or muriatic acids, which dissolve all its active ingredi- 
ents, the parts remaining undissolved being composed principally 
of sandy and siliceous matter. 

The phosphoric acid, lime, iron, alumina, etc., etc., are all con- 
tained in the acid solution and are withdrawn from it and estimated, 
by adding to it other substances for which they have strong affinities, 
and with which they form insoluble salts. For example, if we add 
oxalic acid and oxalate of ammonia, they will immediately combine 
with the lime, to form oxalate of lime, and in that state will fall to 
the bottom of the vessel. 



06 



MODERN HIGH FARMING. 



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■* 


2 


C3 

t4 


o 


8 



•UBUuao 



•Bootsano 






05 <TJ i-i 1-1 






(?» CO 1.0 o 



•tJSSUAUil 



•3saiioiqjO(i 
pmj qaiuwlg 



CO CO C3 



O Tjl -r-l 00 



O 00 C< CJ cs o 
CO C? i^ CO T-* *-< 



t^ CO o 

00 »n o 



5 ^ 



<! w 



i ^ 



ll< 1-1 O O 



MODERN HIGH FARMING. 67 

If in the same way we add magnesia and ammonia, the phosphoric 
acid will at once fly to them, and, as ammonia phosphate of mag- 
nesia, will fall to the bottom; and so on, until one after the other, 
we have secured all the ingredients which the solution contained. 

The ammonia-phosphate of magnesia which has been deposited 
as a sediment, is separated from the liquid by passing the whole 
through filtering paper, from which, after it has become dry, the 
powder left behind is easily collected. 

This powder is then submitted to the most intense hea-t, and is 
thereby transformed into calcined or pyro-phosphate of magnesia, 
the object of the burning process having been, to drive off the 
ammonia and any other foreign bodies, which have not, like magne- 
sia-phosphate, the property of resisting extreme temperatures. 

Pyrophosphate of magnesia, being composed of known parts of 
phosphoric acid and of magnesia, we accurately weigh our calcined 
product; and, supposing, for the sake of illustration, its weight to be 
fifty grains, we immediately knt)W that the substance analyzed 
contains thirty-two per cent, of phosphoric acid, and by a similar 
system of calculation, arrive at the equivalent of this quantity in 
phosphate of lime. 

Before quitting the subject of mineral phosphates, it will be ad- 
visable to mention the discovery of large deposits in the Island of 
Alta Velta, near San Domingo, of a mineral which was at first 
mistaken for phosphate of lime, and as such, shipped in considerable 
quantities to European ports. 

Upon complete analysis, itwasfouud to be phosphate of alumiua 
and iron, with very little lime, and a huge outcry was raised against 
it by leading London analysts, who denounced it as of no value to 
agriculture. 

The cargoes which had already been shipped were consequently 
refused by the consignees and thrown upon the market at very low 
prices; but so great was the prejudice against them, that we have 
never heard of their having met with any purchasers. The detailed 
composition of these phosphates is shown iu the following analysis, 
made from a fair and well-selected sample: 



68 MODERN HIGH FARMING. 

Moisture 12.36 

Water of combiiiatiou 4.13 

♦Phosphoric Acid 30.23 

Limj. 4.16 

Magnesia Traces. 

Oxide of Iron 7.04 

Alumina 24.00 

Carbonic Acid None. 

Sulphuric Acid " 

Fluorine Traces. 

Insoluble Sandy Matter 18.09 

100.00 
♦Equal to 65.87 per cent, of tribasic phosphate of lime. 

It would be well if our chemical brethren would remember 
that as we have already described iu these pages, phosphates are in- 
variably found in our vegetable soils, as phosphates of peroxide of 
iron and alumina, and that, although some difficulty may attend 
their decomposition in the factory, or their transformation into 
chemical manures, they would be extremely valuable in the raw 
state — if very finely ground — as a direct manure. 

The fact, however, of an abundance of phosphate of lime being 
always obtainable at very reasonable prices, has interfered with a 
general popularization of the facts, and it is only in the event of an 
increased demand, or a momentary decrease in ordinarj^ sources of 
supply, that our prejudiced friends will suddenly discover in these 
phosphates a very valuable reserve to fall back upon. 



CHAPTER XII. 

SULPIIUll ITS OCCURRENCE IN NATURE THE MINES OF SICILY 

THE REPINING PROCESS ICELAND SOUPRIERES AND 

SOLFATARAS USE OF SULPHUR IN MANUFACTURE PY- 
RITES AND HOW THEY OCCUR ANALYTICAL TABLES 

GENERAL ANNUAL CONSUMPTION THE MINES OF SPAIN 

DESCRIBED. 

Tlic practice of facilitating the solubility of phosphates by dis- 
solving bones in oil of vitriol (.sulphuric acid), originated with Baron 
Liebig, in about 1851, and it is only uatural that the same idea 
should have been applied to the mineral or earthy product. 

In order that our readers may thorough!}' understand the process 
of decomposition, to which phosphatic materials are subjected in 
the manufacture of superphosphates and other chemical manures, 
it will be necessarjr and useful to explain what sulphuric acid is, 
and how^ it is made. 

It has been said, and been said truly, that the prosperity of an 
industrial country is to be judged of by its production and con- 
sumption of sulphuric acid; and as it forms the basis of all chemi- 
cal industry, and is largely employed in nearly every important 
branch of manufacture, the reason for the assertion can be easily un- 
derstood. 

As its name implies, it is derived either directly from the distilla- 
tion of sulphur (brimstone), or from the burning of mineral sul- 
phurets, known aspi/rites; and before broaching the manufacturing 
question, let us acquire some knowlege of these raw materials. 



70 MODERN HIGH FARMING. 

Sulphur (or Brimstone) is found in nature in abundant quanti- 
ties, and may even be said to exist in nearly every rock, and to be 
closely associated with all mineral ores, copper, silver, zinc, lead, 
tin, iron, etc. 

Its abundance in copper and iron ores is sometimes sufficiently 
great to turn them into sulphurets, and these are, to-day, the princi- 
pal sources from whence sulphur is derived for acid manufacture. 

The chief deposits of brimstone are fouudin Italj'', France, Spain 
and Greece, but those of the first-named country are by far the 
most important, and have hitherto been capable of furnishing to 
the whole world the bulk of the required supply ; the mines of 
Sicily alone being credited with a production of 250,000 tons a 
year. 

In its raw natural state it is amorphous, and of a yellowish 
brown color, being associated with sulphate of lime (gypsum), sul- 
phate of barytes and carbonate of lime. 

The working of the mines in most cases is conducted by means 
of shafts or pits, sunk in the deposit, and are most primitive and 
totally devoid of modern machinery or appliances. They are pro- 
vided with ladders on each side, and up these the mineral is carried 
in small wicker baskets, on the backs of children, their loads vary- 
ing from thirt}"- to seventy pounds, according to their age and 
strength. 

Serious accidents frequently occur to the men engaged below, 
through the falling of these baskets before they reach the surface. 

Near the mouth of each pit are built a series of kilns, like lime 
kilns, calculated to hold from 300 to 400 tons of sulphur at one 
charge. When the children arrive at the top of the shaft, they 
pitch the contents of their baskets into these kilns until they are 
quite full, when the fire is applied, and the brimstone, reduced by 
the heat to a liquid form, falls into a sort of basin at the bottom. 

From the basin it is run off into moulds, whence it emerges in 
blocks of a reddish brick color. 

In this preliminary process of separating the sulphur from its 
grosser impurities, a serious loss of weight is incurred, amounting 



MODERN HIGH FAEMING. 71 

in some cases to about one-third of the bulk, and arising from tlie 
escape of the sulphurous acid gas. 

The rough product thus obtained is sometimes shipped without 
any further refining, and is worth twenty dollars per ton ; but in 
many cases it is further transformed into pure sulphur of a high- 
er value, by sublimation and condensation in iron retorts. 

In the volcanic district of Reykjalid, in the North of Iceland, a 
series of sulphur springs are met with, which afCord a most inter- 
esting study. 

They are of two kinds : those on the mountain slope consisting 
of hot gases, which arise from the earth, charged with sulphuric 
acid, hydrogen, sulphurous and aqueous vapors, and undergo de- 
composition by coming into contact with the atmosphere. The 
others at the foot of the mountain, being springs of black and boil- 
ing mud. 

Mt. C. S. Forbes in his interesting volume on Iceland, her Vol- 
canoes and Glaciers, gives a very graphic description of some of 
these springs, and in one of his chapters, he says : 

" In the valley beyond, about fifty feet beneath us, lay a large 
cauldron, twelve feet in diameter, in full blast, burning and seeth- 
ing, with boiling blue mud that spluttered up in occasional jets, 
five or six feet in height, difi"usiug clouds of vapor in every direction. 
If a constant calm prevailed here. Instead of ever-varying gales, the 
sulphur sublimated from these sources would be precipitated in 
regular banks ; as it is, it hardly ever falls twenty-four hours in the 
same direction, the wind blowing it hither and thither, capriciously 
distributing the sulphur shower in every quarter. 

"Such, with little variation, save in locality, were the numerous 
Soufrieres and Solfataras that we visited, and they extend over a 
space of twenty-five miles. The riches of the district consist not so 
much in these numerous crusts of almost pure sulphur, as in tlie 
beds of what I must be permitted to term sulphur earth, Avhich are 
promiscuously scattered in all directions, ranging from six inches 
to three feet in thickness, and containing from 50 to 60 per cent, 
of pure sulphur." 



72 MODER]Sr HIGH FAEMING. 

Until about fifty years ago, the custom prevailed iu Europe, 
whicli largely prevails iu this couutry, of mauutacturiug the acid 
exclusively from sulphur; but iu 1838, the kiug of Sicily was sufli- 
ciently ill-advised to grant a monopoly of the Sicilian sulphur trade 
to a commercial firm in Marseilles, France, and the consequence of 
this, as of all other monopolies, -was to create for the article an un- 
fair and fictitious value. 

From twenty-five it was advanced to seventy dollars per ton, and 
thus all large manufacturers were induced to seek for their raw ma- 
terials in other directions. 

Some idea of the energy displayed in the endeavor to find this 
required substitute, may be formed from the tact mentioned iu one oi 
Baron Liebig's letters, in which he says that during the short ex- 
istence of the Sicilian monopoly, no less than one hundred and fifty 
patents were taken out iu Europe for the production of sulphuric 
acid trom gypsum (sulphate of lime) the whole of which were, prac- 
tically speaking, industrial fiTilures. 

That the substitute was eventually found, we are presently going 
to see, and brimstone is now principally used iu making gunpowder, 
and for bleaching, aud medical purposes; although if, in price 
and other advantages, it can ever vie with pyrites, there is no reason 
why it should not again be the basis of the manufacturing process. 

Pykites are sulphurets of antimony, arsenic, cobalt, nickel, cop- 
per and iron, the two last being chiefly used for sulphuric acid 
manufacture. They occur iu immense deposits all over the world, 
and mines are now in active Avork on a large and continually in- 
creasing scale in the United States, England, Wales, Irelaud, France, 
Belgium, Gcrmauy, Norway, Sweden, Spain, Portugal and Cauada. 

The annual quautitj' of pyrites consumed iu the United States, 
Great Britain, France and German)'- combined, is estimated at 
1,750,000 tons, of which Great Britain alone takes over 850,000 
tons, and the United States 175,000, the other two countries sharing 
the balance iu almost equal proportions. 

The following table of analyses will show the average composi- 
tion of those ores, which have hitherto been found most suitable, 



MODERN HIGH FARMING. 



73 



there beiug many which, on account of their large percentage of 
arsenic are looked upon with general disfavor. 





Spanish. 


W 

p" 

a 






a 




a 


< 
1' 

a 




1. 


2. 


3. 






47.50 
41.9-' 
4.171 
0.33 
0.2-2 
1.52 
3.40 

0.90 


49.90 
43.55 
3.10 
0.47 
0.35 
0.93 

■2.70 


49.07 

0'.38 
None. 

2.34 

1.18 


42.80 
36.70 
None. 
0.20 
0.40 
0.92 
8.86 

10.12 


34.34 
32.20 
0.80 
0.91 
1..32 
0.40 
29.00 

1.03 


47.41 
41.78 


45.60 
38.52 


38.05 

42.80 

1.50 


.40.00: 48.02 




35.00^ 42.01 


Copper 


1 93 None. 


5.25None. 


Arsenic 


2.11 Trace 


None. 


None. " 




2.00 

None. 

3.93 

0.84 


6.00 None. 


3.00 " 




0.64 
8.70 

0.54 


12.16 
5.49 


0.35 " 


Silica (Sand, etc.).. 

Oxygen, Alumina, 
Lime and other 
Matters not de 
termined. 


11.90 7.60 

4.50 2.37 




100.00 


100.00 


100.00 


100.00 


100.00100.00 


100.00 


100.00 


100.00100.00 



As Spain may be considered, not only the principal source of 
present supply, but an inexhaustible field whence we may expect 
to draw any quantity required during the next few centuries, we 
shall devote ourselves to a short description of the Spanish mines, 
regardinc; them as typical in all important points, of pyrites ore 
deposits. 

They are situated in the mountainous regions of Andalusia, at a 
distance of sixty or seventy miles from the port of Huelva, whence 
the}' are principally shipped for their different destinations. The 
surrounding rocks belong to the " lower Silurian " series, and are of 
a schisty or slatey nature, intermixed here and there with green- 
stone and felspatic rocks of various descriptions. 

The existence of these sulphurous copper ores has been known 
from time immemorial, they having been exploited first by the 
early Celts, then very extensively by the Phoenicians, and in due 
course by the Romans, who worked them for upwards of three hun- 
dred years, and left behind them traces of the gigantic nature of 
their operations, which are still to be seen. 

When the Roman Empire had fallen, and while the Moors were 
in possession of the country, the mines were abandoned, and indeed, 



74 MODER]Sr HIGH PARMIXG. 

were left unworked, until about the middle of the last century, 
when an enterprising Swede endeavored to turn them to account. 

The want, however, of sufficient skill and capital, combined 
witli the difficulties of transport and the political troubles, which 
never ceased to convulse the country, caused all attempts to end 
in failure, until in 1873 the Spanish government decided to dispose 
of the properties by selling them to the company known as the 
Rio Tinto, limited. 

The pyrites deposits are somewhat irregular and occur in lenticu- 
lar shaped masses. There are three important lodes — the South, the 
Dionisio and the North ; the mineral resources of all three being so 
immense as to be considered hj the best authorities inexhaustible. 

The principal opening is that existing in the South lode, which is 
1,500 yards long, 100 yards deep and 200 yards in breadth, and an- 
nually yields about 700,OCO tons of ore, the composition of which is 
shown in our analytical table as Spanish No. 2. 

Before this great lode could be worked, it was found necessary to 
remove nearlj^ four million tons of earth, or overburden. 

Beneath this immense bed of ore, which some engineers have es- 
timated as containing about 200 million tons, are extensi\e under- 
ground workings reached by a tunnel already nearly 1,000 yards in 
length. When this tunnel attains a length of about three miles, it 
will connect and open out the Dionisio lode, upon which a shaft 
has already been sunk in the centre. 

The great value of these sulphur ores is not confined to the manu- 
facture of sulphuric acid, but, by the development of certain chemi- 
cal bye-processes, has assumed considerable importance in the pro- 
duction of the precious metals ; thus, from 1he enormous amount of 
pyrites she annually consumes, Great Britain extracts in addition to 
the acid, about 18,000 tons of pure copper, 300,000 ounces of silver, 
1,800 ounces of Gold and over 400,000 tons of iron ore. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

SULPHURIC ACID MAiSTUPACTURE SKETCH OP ITS PAST HISTORY 

PYRITES BURNING GLOVER'S TOWERS HINTS ON 

THE CONSTRUCTION OF LEADEN CHAMBERS CHEMISTRY OP 

THE PROCESS DENITRATION! GAY-LUSSAC TOWERS 

GENERAL REMARKS. 

Until Mr. Rodwell published his book, " The Birth of Chemistry," 
we had always been led to believe that the discovery of sulphuric 
acid was due to Basil Valentine, but we have now reason to suppose 
that it was known long before his time. 

Pliny teaches us that sulphur was used for making matches and 
that sulphurous acid was employed for bleaching purposes, and 
produced by burning the mineral in contact with the air. Pyrites 
were also well known, and owe the origin of their name to their hav- 
ing been used for lighting fires by means of the sparks which they 
emit wlien struck by steel. 

In the 8th century an Arab named Geber made sulphuric acid 
from the distillation of alum, and at the beginning of the 15th century, 
Basil Valentine commenced to manufacture it by submitting green 
vitriol (sulphate of iron) to distillation and made use of it in various 
processes and dissolutions. 

After his time, several of the old chemists were engaged in in- 
vestigating its properties and endeavoring to find out its true chem- 
ical composition, and among these, Paracelcus, the great Swiss' 
alchemist who died in 1541, declared, as the result of his labors, that 
it was "nitre air mixed with sulphur.'' 



76 MODERN" HIGH FARMIlfG. 

It was, however, reserved for one Gerard Dornceus to describe 
with tolerable exactitude what it really was, and this he did in a 
pamphlet published in the year 1570. 

English makers originally prepared their acid by burning cop- 
peras in brick ovens at a high temperature, and condensing the 
vapors which distilled off, as an impure oil of vitriol, the com- 
mercial value of which was one thousand dollars per ton. This 
process gave way to the use of sulphur and nitre, burnt together in 
enormous glass globes and concentrated- by boiling in glass retorts, 
the product being called " oil of vitriol made by the bell." 

Passing on by successive stages, which we need not stop at, we 
arrive at the year 1746, and find the first leaden chamber erected in 
that year in Birmingham, by Messrs. Roebuck and Garbett, the pro- 
portions of raw material employed being seven or eight pounds of 
sulphur to one pound of saltpetre. This mixture was placed upon 
lead plates standing in water within the chamber, and was ignited 
by means of a red-hot iron bar, through a sliding panel in the wall. 

Shortly after this time came the introduction of a separate apart- 
ment, for burning the sulphur in a current of air, which was regu- 
lated by a slide moving in the iron furnace-door ; the vapors being 
taken off through the roof into the adjoining chamber. 

Progressively and finally we have arrived at our present position, 
and this will naturally continue to be improved upon as chemistry 
moves onward. The principal points in sulphuric acid production, 
requiring consideration by our contemporary industrials may be 
thus summed up : 

A. — What kind of furnace or burner is best calculated to effect 
the complete combustion of the pyrites, including "smalls ?" 

B. — What are the best dimensions to accord to the leaden cham- 
bers in which the combination takes place ? 

C. — How to obtain the maximum results from the sulphur ore 
at a minimum expenditure of nitrate of soda ? 

The manufacturer who has satisfactorily solved all these problems, 
may be said to walk in the very front rank, and has no competition 
to fear from any quarter. 



MODERN" HIGH FARMIISTG. ^'^ 

The best form of burner we have ever seen is that introduced 
by Mr. Spence, of England, the flre-bricli hearth of which is about 
40 feet long by 6 inches wide. It is fired from below, and receives 
the necessary air through an opening in the front, regulated by a 
damper. This oven will successfully burn pyrites in fine powder, 
perfect combustion being ensured by introducing them at the op- 
posite end to the fire and gradually pushing them to the hottest 
parts. When once they have become fully ignited, no further fuel 
of any kind is required, as they will continue to burn until all the 
sulphur is exhausted. 

At the mouth of the flue or chimney of these ovens, are placed 
cast-iron "nitre pots" containing a mixture of nitrate of soda and 
sulphuric acid, and evolving dense nitric acid vapors. Under the 
combined influence of the intense heat and the current of air passing 
through the furnace, the pyrites undergo total decomposition ; the 
sulphur being driven off in the form of vaporous sulphurous acid, 
and the iron being transformed into oxide. When the sulphurous 
vapors arrive at the flue, they meet with those emanating from the 
nitre pots, and the two, immediately combining, pass off through 
large conductors built of lead and lined with brick, known as 
" Glover's towers," into large leaden chambers, where they are 
brought into contact with a considerable body of steam. 

These chambers are constructed entirely of lead, weighing from 
six to seven pounds per square foot, and are generally put up in sets 
of three, connected by syphon and cistern arrangements for drawing 
off and storing the acid, as it is made. They are built upon a frame- 
work of timber, supported by iron columns, and all round their 
sides are placed small glass windows, through which the various 
colors assumed by the vapors, as the manufacturing process devel- 
opes itself, may be plainly seen. At regular intervals between these 
windows, are found leaden syphons, which dip into small leaden 
tanks within the chamber, and permit of samples of the acid being 
drawn as required. 

Endless discussion has taken, and continues to take place concern- 
ing the best size to be adopted for a chamber. 



78 MODEKN" HIGH FAEMIJsTG. 

Our own opinion is that those which are 125 to 150 feet long, 20 
to 25 feet wide, and from 12 to 1§ feet high, best answer the require- 
ments — it being necessary to have them large for very important 
reasons ; first, because of the bulli of the gases which enter, and the 
necessity for their coming into direct contact ; and, second, because 
the air only contains in every hundred, 21 volumes of available oxygen. 

Upon meeting with the steam, the sulphurous vapors combine 

witli certain portions of its hj-drogen and oxygen, and immediately 

become a liquid and tangible body — known as sulphuric acid, while 

- the nitric acid vapors, casting off all their hydrogen, unite with the 

oxygen of the air and become nitric peroxide. 

The sulphuric acid falls to the floor of the chamber, and the ni- 
tric peroxide passes out at the end opposite to that by which it en- 
tered, and is conducted into absorbing columns known as "Gay 
Lussac " towers, where it is absorbed in concentrated sulphuric 
acid, and, conducted by a complicated process back to the regions 
of the nitre pots, where it assumes its original form, and thus 
is continually utilized over again. 

It is on the good and careful, or faulty working of this pro- 
cess of denitration that depends the saving or the loss in the consump- 
tion of nitrate of soda to which we have already alluded in a former 
chapter, and it has ever been the greatest difllculty with which chem- 
ists have had to deal. Without dwelling upon the various old-fash- 
ioned methods still in use in many factories, we will endeavor to give 
a rough outline of that which is now generally looked upon as 
most successful. 

The "Gay-Lussac" columns, to which we have alluded, are 
named after the distinguished French chemist who invented them 
some forty years ago, and are high and narrow leaden towers packed 
with small lumps of coke and supported on a framework of timber. 

The nitric peroxide and the other vapors which issue 
from the chambers are led into these towers through openings 
at the bottom, and are met in their ascent by a current of concen- 
trated sulphuric acid, flowing in a small stream from a cistern placed 
over each tower and pumped up thither by a small forcing engine. 



MODERN HIGH PAEMING. 79 

This acid runs tlirough tlie coke, and without chemical action, 
absorbs the peroxide of nitrogen and carries it downwards, allowing 
any other gases to pass on to the flue whence they escape into 
the air. 

The concentrated nitro-sulphuric acid is weakened during its on- 
ward course by the introduction of newly made acid from the 
chambers, and in this state passes into the " Glover's towers " and 
meets upon its entry the vapors proceeding from the kiln at a 
temperature of about 700° Fahrenheit. 

The immediate effect resulting from this encounter is the 
following : 

The sudden contact with such intense heat, at once concentrates 
the acid to a density of 150° Twaddle, with a great evolution ol 
steam. 

The peroxide of nitrogen is seized upon with avidity by the sul- 
phurous acid vapors and carried with the steam into the leaden 
chambers. 

The concentrated acid falls into a reservoir below, whence it is 
returned by the forcing pump to the Gay-Lussac towers to serve 
over again. 

It will be seen that if this process be thoroughly carried out, not 
only must there be a vast economy of nitre, but all the necessary 
strong acid for the Gay-Lussac towers is produced without the 
slightest expenditure of fuel for its concentration. 

The cost of building leaden chambers being very considerable, 
it is only natural that many attempts should have been made to con- 
struct them from cheaper materials ; we have therefore witnessed 
many trials of earthenware, stone, slate, glass and gutta percha, all 
of which have failed, owing to the rapid manner in which the acid 
has destroyed them. 

It is estimated that there are now consumed in this country 
about 450 tons of pyrites every day, and that the total yearly pro- 
duction of sulphuric acid is about 600,000 tons, of which about 350,000 
are made from sulphur. 



CHAPTER XTV. 

STTPEEPHOSPHATES UNCERTAINTY OP THEIR COMPOSITION 

THEIR MANUFACTURE DESCRIBED HOW TO MANIPULATE 

WHEN MADE -NATURE OP THE DECOMPOSITION PROCESS 

EXPLANATION O'P THE LOSS IN WEIGHT WHAT IS 

SOLUBLE PHOSPHATE ? DISCUSSION OF ITS MERITS IN THE 

FIELD ITS ACTION IN THE SOIL NECESSITY FOR CARE- 
FUL ANALYSIS MADE FURTHER MANIFEST PRECIPITATED 

PHOSPHATES THEIR MANUFACTURE THEIR VIRTUES 

AND SUPERIORITY USE OF COMPLETE MANURES WITH 

EXAMPLES AND STATISTICS REMARKS ON HOME-MADE 

CHEMICAL MANURES. 

The process of superphosphate manufacture, whether it be from 
bones or mineral phosphates, is neitlier a very complicated nor dif- 
ficult one, but it requires a certain amount of chemical knowledge 
and experience which the majority of those concerned in it do not 
possess ; and hence it is, that no article in the market is more varia- 
ble, both in its physical condition and chemical composition. 

Nor can this remain a source of surprise, when we remember 
that each manufacturer adopts some peculiar system of his own, 
and that no two chemical factories bear any resemblance to each 
other. 

Like every growing industry, it has been invaded by capitalists, 
who have seen in it a possibility of realizing large interest on their 
investment, and who, devoid of even elementary true knowledge, 
have begun producing manures without the aid derived from prac- 
tice and observation. 



MODEEN HIGH I"ARMI]S"G. 81 

There are consequently huge quantities of superphosphates, con- 
stantly foisted upon the farmer, which, made in ignorance, purchased 
in ignorance, and used in ignorance, sometimes produce satisfactory 
results, but more frequently give no proportionate or immediate re- 
turn for the money they have cost. 

If a thousand tons of phosphate of lime be given to one manufact- 
urer, he will transform it into a fine and dry acid phosphate, in 
which every particle of phosphoric acid has been made available; 
and if the very same quantity of the same material be entrusted to 
his next-door neighbor — who to the uninitiated possesses the same 
facilities — he may very possibly turn out a moist, pasty substance, 
in which more than half the phosphate will be found insoluble. 

As the readers for whom these pages are written are not supposed 
to be producers, but consumers of manures, we shall not attempt to 
discuss the reasons for the unfortunate lack of homogeneity; but 
shall merely sketch out the process by which superphosphates 
should be made, if they are to fulfill the conditions required by the 
advocates of their application. 

Assuming ourselves to be dealing with the manufacture on a 
large scale, and in connection with the production of sulphuric acid, 
the first step to be taken is the reduction of the raw material to 
a powder, rivaling in degree the finest wheaten fiour. 

Various more or less efficient systems of pulverization have been 
introduced and adopted, but it will serve no useful purpose to 
describe them, the form of implement being of small importance 
providing the object is attained. 

The finely ground material is generally turned directly into sacks, 
weighed by mechanical agency, and laid aside ready for use. 

The mixture with the acid is performed in a commodious shed, 
made to communicate with a high chimney or shaft, so as to carry 
off the noxious vapors of fluoric, silicic and carbonic acids and 
chlorine which are always more or less evolved by all phosphates 
during the reaction. In the centre of the floor of this shed, should 
be built, with a good foundation, a strong brick-work shell, divided 
into four or six chambers or dens. 



82 . MODERN HIGH FARMING. 

Each den should be about 12 feet square and 15 to 20 feet high, 
and must communicate with the shaft or chimney, by means of a 
good-sized opening, situated near the top, while the air-tight iron 
doors by which they are entered must slide easily, when pushed 
backwards or forwards. 

Upon the top of each den is fitted a mixer of cylindrical shape, 
3 feet in diameter and 4 feet high, made of lead, and encased in a 
strong wooden frame, with a movable bottom or trap. It must be 
provided with a large hopper or feeder, and possess a revolving axle 
fitted with arms or spirals. 

Running into each mixer from the top, under the hopper, is a 
leaden pipe fitted with a glass stop-cock communicating with a tank 
placed directly overhead, and prearranged by mechanical appliances 
to let out only a calculated quantity of liquid for each batch. This 
tank communicates in its turn, with the acid chambers from which, 
when emptied, it is automatically replenished. 

The phosphate is either brought forward from the mill in buckets, 
by what are known as Jacob's ladders, or wheeled up an inclined 
plane and emptied into the hopi^ers of the mixer, where, the acid 
tap being turned on, the powder and the liquid work into the drum 
together. 

The agitators are allowed to revolve with swiftness and energy for 
about five minutes, when, the sliding bottom of the mixer being 
withdrawn, the whole contents in the form of a thick mud are al- 
lowed to drop from the drum into the den. 

As the acid in the leaden chambers is frequently found to be de- 
posited in layers of different strength, care must always be taken to 
test and thoroughly mix it before allowing it to enter the tank from 
which the phosphate mixers are supplied, — a want of uniformity 
in this direction being generally, if not always, attended with loss 
and disappointment. At the end of 24 hours the doors of the dens 
may be opened, and, if the proportions of the raw material have 
been properly calculated, the superphosphate will then be sufficiently 
hard to allow of its removal with the shovel. 



MODERN HIGH FAEMING. 83 

The transformation undergone by the mineral will be understood, 
by calling to mind that phosphates of lime are tribasic, that is to 
say, composed of three parts of lime to one part of phosphoric 
acid, and that in this state they are totally insoluble in pure 
water. 

When the sulphuric, which is the strongest acid, is brought into 
contact with the powder, it drives away all the carbonic, fluoric and 
silicic acids, and, depriving the phosphoric acid of two of its equiv- 
alents of lime, forms them into sulphate (gypsum). The phosphoric 
acid, thus left with only one equivalent, becomes mono, or meta- 
phosphate, which is soluble in water. It follows from this that 
unless a suflBciently large proportion of sulphuric acid be used to 
completelj^ effect this transformation, a certain quantity of the phos- 
phates will retain their primitive tribasic state, and be shown as 
insoluble when the manufactured article is submitted to analysis. 

As a final result of the above chemical decomposition, the differ- 
ence in the weight of the raw materials and the manufactured 
product will be considerable, but should, nevertheless, not exceed 
G}^ or 7 per cent. This loss, however, chiefly arises from the 
disappearance of the gaseous elements driven away by the sul- 
phuric acid, and in no way affects the quantity of phosphoric 
acid. Thus, for example, presuming the proportions used, to have 
been 200 pounds each of sulphuric acid and tribasic phosphate of 
lime, we should find tlie weight of the superphosphate to be 372 
pounds, and that of the mono-phosphate to be equivalent to 120 
pounds of tribasic phosphate of lime, or rather more than 30 per 
cent. 

Farmers believe the word "soluble " to mean that the acid phos- 
phates, when put into the ground, at once dissolve, and hence that 
their use is much more advantageous than that of phosphates in 
their raw state. 

The time has come for a correction of this misapprehension and 
for a recognition of the true phenomenon ; because, if farmers are to 
be scientific, they must at least understand something of the elemen- 
tary chemistry of their operations. 



84 MODERN HIGH FAEMING. 

We have already seen how most of the ingredients placed in the 
soil are absorbed and made available for plant food. It will there- 
fore be unnecessary to add that none of the manures are assimilated 
in the form in loMcli they are introduced. 

Thus acid phosphate, sold as soluble, and found upon analysis lo 
answer the required test, simply means that, so long as the sulphuric 
acid maintains possession of the lime it has taken from the phosphoric 
acid, the latter has only one base, which its own acidity enables it, 
to dissolve when immersed in the water ; but place these matters in 
the ground — where the carbonates are in excess — and the sulphuric 
acid is at once overpowered and the phosphoric acid set free. 

The latter element, being unable to exist in nature in a free state, 
or in any other than a tribasic form, unites once more with the lime 
and iron of the soil, and so at once practically reassumes the same 
chemical form it originally wore when tipped into the mixers at 
the factory. 

The question naturally arises, under these circumstances, whether 
it is of any use continuing the employment of acid, soluble, or super- 
phosphate, and whether it would not be wiser to at once adopt the 
direct application of the raw material ? Some chemists having 
declared that young rootlets are frequently destroyed by the cor- 
rosive action of the sulphuric acid. (?) 

The original idea of mixing the acid with the phosphates in order 
to render them more easily assimilable, arose from the impossibility 
of reducing either bones or mineral phosphates to such a high state 
of division and disintegration, as to make them easy to grapple with 
and decompose by the chemical elements in the soil. 

The whole theory of Liebig, therefore, was, that what could not 
be done mechanically, chemical means could easily effect. And the 
best proof of the complete disintegration or dissociation of the 
elements in the mixing process, is to be found in the formation of 
sulphate of lime, and the consequent deprivation of the phosphoric 
acid of two of its bases ; so that, while it is undeniable that tribasic 
phosphate is immediately reformed in the soil, we consider it to be 
reformed in such a conveniently disseminated manner, as to facilitate 



MODERN HIGH FARMING. 85 

its attack by the carbonic acid and render its subsequent solu- 
bility a work of comparative ease. 

In lands which contain an abundant or even a moderate supply 
of lime, there can, consequently, be no doubt as to the rapid de- 
composition of the acid phosphates, and the assimilation of their 
phosphoric acid. But where both difficulty and danger may be en- 
countered is when an absence or deficiency of lime characterizes the 
soil. For in such cases, not only will the phosphoric acid remain 
unassimilable, but the excess of free sulphuric acid may exercise a 
corrosive action on the roots, or combine with the oxides of iron to 
form sulphate, the baneful properties of which we have dwelt upon 
elsewhere. 

The arguments in favor of soil analysis, constituted by these 
considerations, appear to us to be conclusive, and they will not fail 
to add their weight to our oft-repeated assertion, that to know 
what elements to apply and in what form to apply them, we must 
first of all possess perfect information on the physical and chemical 
properties of the lands under treatment. Do they lack phosphoric 
acid, and have they plenty of lime ? Then superphosphates are the 
natural prescription. But if they are shown to lack a sufiiciency of 
both phosphoric acid and lime, they must either be well limed first 
and afterwards receive the superphosphates, or we must devise some 
other form, in which the two necessary matters may be simultaneous- 
ly plowed in, with the prospect of obtaining speedy and beneficial 
results. 

We have already striven to impress our readers with the belief 
that the origin of manures, or the form in which they present the 
needful constituents, ai'e both utterly insignificant, providing those 
constituents be of a nature to become at once available for the crops. 
"We shall therefore be understood when we say that our own ten- 
dencies, based upon long experience and experiments, are in favor, 
wherever it is possible, of substituting the use of precipitated phos- 
phates for the acid supers. 

Precipitated phosphates are obtained by dissolving the raw and 
finely powdered phosphatic material in muriatic acid, which, when 



86 MODERN HIGH FARMING. 

it has taken up as much as it can possibly retain, is neutralized by 
the addition of carbonate of lime (common chalk). 

The deposit which ensues from this operation is allowed to ac- 
cumulate, and the clear liquid is then decanted off. When thoroughly 
dried, the precipitate will be found to contain from 75 to 85 per 
cent, of triba'sic phosphate, in a state of physical division, which, 
for similar chemical reasons, is common with that of superphos- 
phate. It is therefore easily decomposed by the alkaline carbonates 
in the soils, and made soluble by the carbonic acid. 

"We have heard it maintained, that the price of this preparation 
is too high to permit of its being generally used in sufficient quantity, 
and that superphosphates, having stood the test of time, had given 
results which, upon the whole, were satisfactory. 

On general principle we shall not attempt to deny these asser- 
tions, any more than we shall refuse to admit that established 
interest and prejudice are both in their favor; but we, nevertheless, 
submit that, where the choice is between two articles — one of which 
is shown not only to have weak points but to sometimes be harmful, 
whereas the other is infallible, the acquisition of the latter is a true 
economy. 

We shall therefore be very glad, even if it should necessitate a 
small monetary sacrifice, to see precipitated phosphates more largely 
and frequently employed ; although we give out the idea with a full 
consciousness of the vast difficulties which attend the marking-out of 
rigid lines for the cultivator's guidance. 

The farmer holds in his hands the threads of his own prosperity 
and the elements necessary to his own success; he possesses the com- 
pass, by means of which his bark can be steered into port with flying 
colors; and this compass is his intimate acquaintance with the soil 
he tills. Just as the best of armies are paralyzed without a leader, 
so the best and most accomplished chemists can never give a sound 
opinion, when they have not the results of complete investigation to 
guide them. 

In the course of our remarks upon farm-yard manures, we have 
laid great stress upon their utter inadequacy to restore the necessary 



MODERN HIGH FARMING. 87 

elements in sufficient quantity to the soil, and even when, by work- 
ing into the compost heaps a sufficiency of phosphatic materials, we 
bring up the phosphoric acid to the requisite standard, they will 
still lack other elements to make them perfect. 

A complete manure may be defined a£ that which puts back, in 
its true proportion, each element taken away by the preceding crop. 
And to exemplify this, we take a crop of wheat, estimating the 
average production at 38 to 40 bushels of grain per acre, or at 4,750 
pounds in weight including the straw. On the basis of our previous 
calculations, we shall find that this crop has approximately taken 
from the soil : 

55 pounds of Nitrogen, 
25 " " Phosphoric acid, 
30 " " Potash, 
without counting the lime, the silica and other raatters, which we 
shall presume a good old soil to contain in sufficient quantity ; and 
that, therefore, if we wish the production to be maintained, the 
same amounts must be returned. 

Now, the calculation of the requisite quantity of well-made farm- 
yard manure to represent the nitrogen, can be easily made, since we 
have already shown that in every hundred pounds there is about 
half-a-pound of this precious fertilizer : 

3^^ pound Nitrogen = 100 lbs. farm manure. 

55 pounds " =11,000 lbs. " " or 5)^ tons per acre. 
And our experience has taught us that of all those who farm, say, 
50 acres of land, there are very few who can produce 275 tons of 
high-class stable dung ! 

We must consequently look to compound fertilizers of chemical 
manufacture to supply the deficiency, unless within easy reach are 
to be found such articles as we have tabulated on page 49, in a 
form adapted to convenient manipulation. 

So many difficulties are connected, however, with the manu- 
facture of chemical fertilizers on the farm — in arriving at the proper 
proportions, in the constant attendance to the perfect working and 
decomposition — that we have come to consider the abandonment of 



88 MODEEN HIGH FARMING. 

home-made chemical manures as the natural outcome of practical 
experiment. 

The inanufacturer who has suitable works, and produces on the 
large scale; who has the needful knowledge and practice, and the 
needful implements at hand, buys his raw material by cargoes to the 
best advantage. He can therefore very easily furnish well-made com- 
pound manures, and guarantee them by chemical analysis to contain 
the elements desired, at a price which, all things considered, will be 
less than the cost of home fabrication. 

With soluble or precipitated phosphates as the basis of operations, 
we can now obtain complete manures for every culture, made accord- 
ing to any formula, and containing in a readily available and 
assimilable form all the ingredients called for. 

The raw materials having already been dwelt ui^on, and their 
attributes and chemical comx^osition described, it is only needful to 
add that when the due proportions of each kind have been accurately 
weighed, they are all mixed up together by special machinery, and 
so carefully ground, sifted and blended, as to make it impossible to 
distinguish with the naked eye that any mixture has taken place. 



CHAPTER XV. 

CHEMICAL AHALYSIS HOW TO KEAD AND UNDERSTAND CHEMISTS' 

CERTIFICATES USE OF "COMPLETE" AND "SIMPLE" MAN- 
URES CONCLUSION. 

If we were now asked to pithily sum up the great practical con- 
clusion to be drawn from our lessons, we should reply, not ' ' Farmer, 
know Thyself!" but. Farmer, know thy soils and analyze thy ma- 
nure;" believing as we do, in all sincerity, that this is the sum of 
intelligent high farming. 

The mere possession of an analysis, however, conveys no infor- 
mation, unless it be thoroughly understood, any more than a hundred 
pounds of candles would be of any service to a man in a dark room, 
if he had nothing to strike a light with ; and we shall therefore en- 
deavor to translate the meaning of the statements made by chemists 
in their certificates. 

The Moisture is the water which is introduced into the 
mixture by the weak sulphuric acid, and in a properly prepared 
compound should never exceed 12 to 15 per cent. The sellers of 
chemical manures should invariably be required to guarantee a min- 
imum of each active element contained in a given product, in Us 
normal state. 

Thus, for instance, a sample of superphosphate taken at the 
works, may, when despatched by mail, have contained 20 per cent. 
of moisture and 10 per cent, of soluble phosphoric acid ; but between 
the time of its dispatch, its arrival at destination, and its analysis 
by the intending purchaser, so small a sample may have suffered the 
loss of 5 per cent, in weight by evaporation. 



90 MODEKN HIGH FARMING. 

Presuming, therefore, that it originally weighed 10 ounces, it will 
then only weigh 9% ounces, and nothing but water having been lost, 
these 91^ ounces will now contain 12 per cent, of phosphoric acid. 

If the manure be purchased upon this sample without further 
analysis, as frequently occurs, the buyer will pay on the basis of 
13 per cent, but will, in reality, only receive 10 per cent, and so incur 
a loss of $1.50 or $2.00 per ton. 

In many instances, farmers are induced to buy manures at so 
much per ton, guaranteed to contain, in the dry state, certain propor- 
tion of the active elements. When analyzed, they are found to be 
loaded with 20 or even 25 per cent, of water; and therefore, if sold as 
containing, say, 20 per cent, of acid phosphate, will only contain 15. 

Organic Matter consists of all substances subject to decom- 
position by fire, or to natural decay: — hair, wool, woody fibre, 
cotton, vegetable and animal refuse, are consequently placed in this 
category by the chemical analyst. The value of their presence lies 
in their percentage of nitrogen, and this being very variable indeed, 
the addition of the words nitrogenous, or non-nitrogenous, and the 
indication of the equivalent quantity of ammonia, should always be 
demanded. AVhere this precautionary measure is neglected, very 
grave misapprehensions frequently ensue, from the simple fact that 
common wood-shavings, mixed into a manure, would be truly stated 
as organic matter. 

When these words are qualified by that of " nitrogenous," a 
glance at the foot of the certificate should show us the equivalent 
in ammoniacal salts. Thus in Peruvian guano, it was no uncommon 
thing to find 50 per cent, of nitrogenous organic matter, containing 
173^ per cent, of ammonia, and equal to 14i^ per cent, of nitrogen ; 
and hence the prevalent custom for unprincipled traders to manu- 
facture spurious guanos, which were bought by the unsuspecting 
. farmer, under the impression that the term " organic matter" was 
just as significant of value in the one case as in the other. 

Soluble Phosphoric Acid represents, as we have already pointed 
out, the quantity of phosphate of lime made soluble in water by the 
excess of sulphuric acid. For example: a superphosphate of 12 per 



• MODEEN" HIGH rAEMIiq"G. 91 

cent, guaranteed strength is equal to 26.16 per cent, of tribasic 
phosphate of lime, but not of biphosphate, or monophosphate, as 
might be easily supposed, and of which no more than about 17 per 
cent, would be present. 

When buying phosphatic manures, it is always well to have a 
distinct understanding as to the word soluble, as many makers pro- 
duce an article which, though only partially soluble in water, 
readily dissolves in citrate of ammonia. It frequently happens that 
a superphosphate, even when made with all care and skill, suffers 
from the subsequent reaction of the iron and alumina, what is called 
a retrogradation or going back to insolubility, and when this is so, 
becomes only partially soluble in water, while remaining entirely 
soluble in the other liquid named. 

Insoluble Phosphates only occur in cases where imperfect 
decomposition and want of skill have characterized the manipulation ; 
and as no immediate benefit can be derived from applying them to 
the soil in this form, which cannot be as readily attained by using 
raw phosphates, the value should be brought down to the actual 
market level of the latter. Presuming, for instance, the soluble 
phosphates to be worth one dollar per unit, these insoluble matters 
must not be charged at a higher rate than twenty to twenty-five cents. 

Sulphate of Lime results from the process which goes on in 
the mixers already described. It invariably exists in large propor- 
tions in all superphosphates, and its chemically great affinity for 
water facilitates the drying of compounds which, in many cases, 
would otherwise retain tlie form of paste. Its efficacy is well recog- 
nized, and, as plaster of Paris, or baked gypsum, it is frequently 
purchased and applied with good results to grass lands. 

This gypsum is not taken into consideration, in fixing the value 
of a manufactured manure, and the farmer who has been in the 
habit of buying plaster of Paris, may cease this outlay from the day he 
commences to use superphosphates, it being no longer necessary. 

Alkaline Salts generally consist of sulphate of soda and potash, 
in ordinary mineral superphosphates, and in their case are too in- 
significant to require any special attention. 



92 MODERN HIGH FARMING. 

When compound manures are in question, however, this heading 
will comprehend the potash and any nitrates that may have been 
added to them, and will then be of considerable importance. It is 
the common practice when estimating the nitrates, to add the quan- 
tity of nitrogen they contain to that found in the organic matter, 
and calculate the equivalent of the whole as ammonia. 

Even in cases where no organic matter exists, the same mode of 
estimation can be applied, as, supposing the manure to contain 7^^ 
per cent, of nitrate of soda, it will be equivalent to IJ^ per cent, of 
ammonia, or 1}£ per cent of nitrogen. The potash salts are chiefly 
found in manures, either as muriate or nitrate, and their value is de- 
termined by reducing them to their equivalent in pure potash. 

Insoluble Siliceous Matter means the earthy and sandy 
bodies forming the gangue by which all mineral phosphates are sur- 
rounded, and from which it is impossible to entirely free them. In 
supei phosphates or compound manures, the very maximum quantity 
of these useless substances should be 6}^ to 7 per cent., and anything 
above these figures would suggest to our minds the addition of some 
worthless rubbish, with a fraudulent intention. 

As complementary to this explanation of the various constituents, 
shown by chemical analysis to make up the composition of a 
manure, it will be wise to give a practical illustration, and we there- 
fore append the analysis of a "phospho-guano," or artificially pre- 
pared guano, dissolved in sulphuric acid. 

Moisture 9.13 

♦Nitrogenous Organic Matter 38.57 

Phosphoric Acid Soluble in Water 13.20 

Insoluble Phosphate of Lime 5.01 

Sulphate of Lime 19.26 

tAlkaline Salts 9.97 

Insoluble Matters 4.87 

100.00 

♦Containing Nitrogen 9.00 

Equal to Fixed Ammonia 10.92 

tCoutaining Potash , , , 3.75 



, MODERN HIGH FARMING. 93 

Where Stassflirt salts are used by manure manufacturers, a con- 
siderable danger sometimes arises from tlieir containing a serious 
enemy to vegetation, in the form of chloride of magnesium, -which, 
when not driven o2 by the application of sufficient heat, constitutes 
a positive poison to plant life. 

When the lands under cultivation are characterized by the homo- 
geneity, or equally balanced proportion of their chemical elements, 
the yearly application of compound, or "complete" manures will 
sustain their health and strength, and increase their fecundity, but 
where, as in most cases, one of the essential elements is alone found 
to be wanting, the others being present in abundance, the temporary 
employment of a " simple" manure is clearly indicated. 

Supposing, for instance, a soil to be rich in nitrogen and potash, 
but devoid of phosphoric acid, and presuming cereals to be the de- 
sired culture, the repeated introduction of phosphatic materials will 
accomplish what is necessary, until after about the third crop, when 
the nitrogen will probably have become exhausted. 

That the eventual recourse to compound or "complete" ma- 
nures is essential, therefore, may be considered conclusive, even if 
we had not for our guidance the experience of our grandfathers, 
who, having always contented themselves with their stable offal, 
were finally compelled to take refuge in the sj^stem of rotation, be- 
cause their manures were incapable of Teturning, pro rata, the ele- 
ments their crops had taken away. To set forth any general formula 
for universal use and for every kind of culture, would be as contrary 
to our theories as the swallowing of quack specifics for every hu- 
man ill is against our practice, nor would it be consistent with the 
doctrine, ' ' do all that you have to do with a full knowledge of what 
you are doing!" 

It is time that what has been so long and so exclusively known 
to chemists, should become known to the farmer, and that of two 
things he should at once choose one. Let him either deny the truth 
and boldly refuse to be convinced, or fall into the ranks and profit 
by those lessons taught by nature. They who, dissatisfied with the 
iniserable results of their traditionary usages, seek to raise their minds 



94 MODERK HIGH TARMIKG. 

to the level of modern science, will hardly fail to perceive how 
coarse and ignorant is that prejudice, how base and grovelling those 
capacities, which still refuse to recognize its wondrous revelations. 

The fossilized systems which were good enough for a by-gone 
age cannot any longer assimilate with our gigantic progress. They 
do not keep step with the conceptions of natural law and order 
forced upon our minds by modern thought. Are not agriculturists, 
of all men, the ones to deal with that question which dominates all 
others in natural interest and importance — the question of our food 
supply ? When placed upon the scale of sober judgment with every 
other social problem, does not this one outweigh them all, and come 
crashing down like lead when weighed with feathers ? 

Is it not to feed our children that we make all the best efforts of 
our lives? And where the food of nations depends upon the issue, 
should not every reasoning being lend strength to tear aside that 
curtain which hides the sun of knowledge and holds men's minds in 
ignorance and darkness ? 

We are stepping on far, we are stepping on swiftly. The Schools 
are rendering us assistance, and hurrying us on to emancipation; and 
so surely as the intellect develops and expands, so surely will the 
modern farmer cast aside the last remnants of his prejudices, and, 
seeing that the turn has come in the tide of his affairs, will take it at 
the flood and be led on to fortune. 





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